Ayesha Majeed, Aisha Hameed, Iram Aftab, Muhammad Anees, Shahida Mohsin, Shabbir Hussain.
Soluble Serum Transferrin Receptor (STFR) Levels in Hemodialysis Patients.
Ann King Edward Med Uni Jan ;22(4):290-5.

Objectives: Anemia is a frequent disorder in patients with end‐stage renal disease. Erythropoietin is advised in these patients; however, this therapy is not effective in patients who are iron deficient. So, diagnosis of iron deficiency which is traditionally based on ferritin and other iron parameters becomes difficult in these pati-ents, as chronic kidney disease is a chronic inflamma-tory condition which affects these markers and masks the iron deficiency. In present study, we assessed the reliability of another indicator of body iron supply; serum transferrin receptor, in hemodialysis patients. It is not affected in case of inflammation unlike other markers of iron status. Patients and Methods: Eighty Patients with end stage renal disease, 20 to 60 years of age and both sexes were included. All cases were examined for complete blood count, serum iron, serum ferritin, ser-um total iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation and serum soluble transferrin receptor. Data was ana-lysed by using independent sample t test and Pearson’ correlation. A p value of ≤ 0.05 was considered as sig-nificant. Results: The results of our research showed that mean values of serum soluble transferrin receptor and serum ferritin were 3.28 ± 0.83 μg/ml and 286.31 ± 165 ng/ml respectively which were significantly higher than the upper normal limit (p < 0.001). Levels of sTfR were statistically different (p = 0.002) between iron replete group (SF > 100 ng/ml) and iron deplete group (SF < 100 ng/ml). Additionally, there was negative and significant correlation between sTfR and Hemoglobin. Conclusions: Levels of serum soluble transferrin receptor can be used as a reliable marker of iron defi-ciency in hemodialysis patients.

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