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Detecting Subclinical Deficiency of Iron from the Index Soluble Transferrin Receptor-Ferritin in Healthy Children 1 to 10 Years of Age Living at Altitudes of 300 and 2,600 meters
The measurement of hemoglobin within the range considered normal does not determine the functional iron deposit. The aim of this study was the description of the behavior of hematological serum ferritin, soluble transferring receptor and soluble transferrin receptor index-ferritin, compared with hemoglobin to detect subclinical stages I and II in 92 children and 81 girls between 1 and 10 years of age in Colombian populations located at different levels above the sea level. For statistical analysis the descriptive analysis and the nonparametric test of Kruskal-Wallis are used. The support software for the analysis of results is SPSS 15.0. A P value of less than 0.05 in the tests was considered significant.
The hemoglobin concentration was within reference values, however, the index of soluble transferrin receptorferritin detected 9% of the studied children with subclinical status grade I, II, 3% with chronic disease, the 2% anemia of chronic disease accompanied by iron deficiency anemia, 14% of children had acute or chronic infectious process without anemia and 76% had adequate iron stores. The results for serum ferritin for the soluble transferrin receptor for the index and soluble transferrin receptor-ferritin exhibited similar behavior in children regardless of the height above sea level. This was confirmed by using statistical tests to reveal that the rate determining soluble transferrin receptor-ferritin is an excellent tool to detect subclinical iron deficiency.
