Serum iron is a medicaw waboratory test dat measures de amount of circuwating iron dat is bound to transferrin (90%) and serum ferritin (10%). Cwinicians order dis waboratory test when dey are concerned about iron deficiency, which can cause anemia and oder probwems.
65% of de iron in de body is bound up in hemogwobin mowecuwes in red bwood cewws. About 4% is bound up in myogwobin mowecuwes. Around 30% of de iron in de body is stored as ferritin or hemosiderin in de spween, de bone marrow and de wiver. Smaww amounts of iron can be found in oder mowecuwes in cewws droughout de body. None of dis iron is directwy accessibwe by testing de serum.
However, some iron is circuwating in de serum. Transferrin is a mowecuwe produced by de wiver dat binds one or two iron(III) ions, i.e. ferric iron, Fe3+; transferrin is essentiaw if stored iron is to be moved and used.
Most of de time, about 30% of de avaiwabwe sites on de transferrin mowecuwe are fiwwed. The test for serum iron uses bwood drawn from veins to measure de iron mowecuwes dat are bound to transferrin, and circuwating in de bwood.
The extent to which sites on transferrin mowecuwes are fiwwed by iron ions can be anoder hewpfuw cwinicaw indicator, known as percent transferrin saturation. Anoder wab test saturates de sampwe to measure de totaw amount of transferrin; dis test is cawwed totaw iron-binding capacity (TIBC). These dree tests are generawwy done at de same time, and taken togeder are an important part of de diagnostic process for conditions such as anemia, iron deficiency anemia, anemia of chronic disease and Haemochromatosis.
μg/dL = micrograms per deciwiter.
Laboratories often use different units and "normaw" may vary by popuwation and de wab techniqwes used; wook at de individuaw waboratory reference vawues to interpret a specific test (for instance, your own).
Reference ranges for bwood tests, comparing bwood content of iron and rewated compounds (shown in brown and orange) wif oder constituents.
^ a b c Serum Iron Archived 2006-10-28 at de Wayback Machine. University of Iwwinois Medicaw Center. Accessed Juwy 6, 2006.
Medwine Pwus Medicaw Encycwopedia: Serum Iron.
This page was wast edited on 16 Juwy 2018, at 10:22 (UTC).