SERUM FERRITIN LEVEL BY RIA AMONG ANEMIC AND NON ANEMIC PEDIATRIC SUBJECTS

Abstract

Ferritin is a family of iron-storage proteins that are found in animals, plants, fungi and bacteria. Presently, serum ferritin is used as a laboratory test for monitoring of iron status of the patient. It is recommended as a tool for monitoring of patient with hematological diseases. Here, we reported our study concerning serum ferritin at different hemoglobin level. Thirty subjects were included in this study. The ferritin in this study was performed by radioimmunoassay method (RIA) at the Nuclear Medicine Division, Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University. According to our study, 8 subjects were classified as anemic group and 22 subjects were classified as non anemic group. The average serum ferritin level for the whole subjects, the anemic group and non anemic group were 1912. 47 ± 1734.97 ng/ml, 1559.81 ± 1557.33 ng/ml, and 2040.71 ± 1812.15 ng/ml, respectively. Of interest, there was a significant different between the average serum ferritin between anemic and non anemic group (p = 0.46). Therefore, we can repeatedly state the importance of serum ferritin determination in hematology study.