Assessment of iron status with a new fully automated assay for transferrin receptor in human serum

Serum transferrin receptor is considered as a reliable marker of iron status particularly when iron deficiency is associated with chronic disorders such as inflammation, infection or malignancy. The present study aims to illustrate the performances of a new fully automated assay using immunonephelometry. The intra and between-assay precision was found to be very good (CVs < 4%). In healthy subjects there was no statistically significant difference between men and women. With a cut-off of 1.76 mg/l for diagnosing iron deficiency either alone or combined with anemia of chronic diseases, the sensitivity and specificity were respectively 82% and 96.8%. Unlike conventional biochemical and hematological tests, soluble transferrin receptor was unaffected by confounding pathologies. In genetic hemochromatosis the concentration of soluble transferrin receptor was mostly decreased due to the regulatory effect of iron intracellular revel. Our study confirms the reliability of soluble transferrin receptor for the assessment of iron status. It is now possible to assay soluble transferrin receptor, ferritin and transferrin on the same apparatus within 15 minutes.