Serum ferritin in the elderly

Abstract

A two-site immunoradiometric assay for human ferritin has been developed using antibody-coated polystyrene tubes. Serum ferritin was measured in fifty-four men and women aged 73 years. The geometric mean was 166 μg/l for thirty-one men and 161 μg/l for twenty-two women. One woman was excluded from the statistical calculations. Twenty-eight of the subjects had earlier participated in a study of food consumption by the duplicate portion technique. There was a significant correlation (r = 0.44, P < 0.01) between the food iron intake and the serum ferritin values. A reference material of men and women aged 18–55 years was also analysed. The geometric mean for males was 170 μg/l with a 95% confidence range of 46–637 μg/l. The female controls were found to have significantly lower values (geometric mean 51 μg/l, 95% confidence range 10–260 μg/l) than both the older women (P < 0.001) and the male controls (P < 0.001).

Key Words:

• ferritin
• human
• iron stores
• reference values
• serum
• sex- and age-dependent values