What does a serum ferritin level indicate?
What does a serum ferritin level indicate?
Ferritin is a blood protein that contains iron. A ferritin test helps your doctor understand how much iron your body stores. If a ferritin test reveals that your blood ferritin level is lower than normal, it indicates your body’s iron stores are low and you have iron deficiency. As a result, you could be anemic.
What is the difference between serum ferritin and ferritin?
While a low serum ferritin is virtually diagnostic of iron deficiency, a normal serum ferritin can be seen in patients who are deficient in iron and have coexistent diseases (eg, hepatitis or anemia of chronic disorders).
What are the symptoms of high ferritin?
Symptoms of excess ferritin include:
- stomach pain.
- heart palpitations or chest pains.
- unexplained weakness.
- joint pain.
- unexplained fatigue.
What is considered a dangerously high ferritin level?
Many laboratories consider serum ferritin levels greater than 200 ng/mL in women and greater than 300 ng/mL in men to be abnormal.
Does fatty liver cause high ferritin levels?
Serum ferritin (SF) levels are commonly elevated in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), due to systemic inflammation, increased iron stores or both.
What are symptoms of high ferritin levels?
What is dangerously high ferritin levels?
What cancers cause high ferritin levels?
In addition to breast cancer, the serum ferritin level has also been found to be elevated in patients with lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, colorectal cancer, leukemia, and lymphoma, and the level was closely associated with the prognosis.
Is high ferritin bad?
High levels of ferritin can damage your joints, heart, liver, and pancreas. Too much iron is most often caused by an inherited disease called hemochromatosis. Many people with this disease never have any symptoms, especially women who lose iron through menstruation.
How can I lower my ferritin levels quickly?
A complementary strategy that may help lower ferritin levels in people with hemochromatosis is following a diet lower in iron but high enough in nutritious foods. Fiber, green tea, and coffee might also lower iron absorption in people with iron overload.
Is ferritin a tumor marker?
Ferritin: a tumor marker expressed by renal cell carcinoma.
What are the symptoms of high ferritin levels?
What is serum ferritin and why is it important?
The ferritin in your body also plays important roles in inflammation and immunity in your body. Although serum ferritin is a blood test, it indirectly checks for the amount of iron stored inside your body as a whole. Having the right amount of iron in your body is important because iron is essential for many bodily processes.
What is the normal range of ferritin levels?
Normal serum ferritin levels vary between laboratories but generally concentrations >300 µg/L in men and postmenopausal women and >200 µg/L in premenopausal women are regarded as elevated. 1 Low ferritin values provide absolute evidence of iron deficiency. 2 Raised levels often indicate iron overload,…
How do you manage elevated serum ferritin levels?
Management of Elevated Serum Ferritin Levels. Empirical phlebotomy can be attempted, but if the ferritin level is elevated on the basis of inflammation, the patient will likely become anemic before the ferritin level decreases. In patients with mild elevations of ferritin, observation over time may be appropriate.
Is there an alternative name for ferritin?
Transferrin carries ferritin to replenish the iron to form new red blood cells. The body needs to have a normal store of ferritin that will be used by the body from time to time. Does Ferritin have an alternative name? Yes, ferritin is also known as serum ferritin. What is a Ferritin test?