Limitation of serum ferritin in the monitoring of chronic kidney failure

Abstract

Assessment of iron status is essential in the management of chronic kidney failure; nevertheless, the assay of conventional markers often leads to questionable results. This work aims to show the disproportionate elevation of serum ferritin levels in chronic kidney failure patients. This is a six-month retrospective study. We evaluated iron metabolism, C reactive protein (CRP), and hemogram determination in 2 groups of patients. The first group consisted of 200 chronic kidney failure patients with anemia, the second group consisted of 100 anemic patients with normal kidney function, no inflammation, infection or tumoral disease. The average age in the first group was 60.2±14.08. The mean ferritin level was 385.25ng/mL ±360.52. Serum ferritin level was ≤500 ng/mL in 119 patients, between 500 and 1000 ng/mL in 47 patients, and greater or equal to 1000ng/mL in 34 patients. As for the second group, the mean ferritin level was 28.20ng/mL ±72.13. The prevalence of iron overload was significant in group 1(40%). However, no case of overload was reported in the 2nd group. Through the results of this work, we deduced that there is a statistically significant correlation between chronic kidney failure and serum ferritin increase.