Bahr Timothy M, Christensen Robert D, Ward Diane M, Meng Fanjing, Jackson Laurie K, Doyle Kelly, Christensen Daniel R, Harvey Anne G, Yaish Hassan M
Division of Neonatology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Division of Neonatology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Center for Iron and Heme Disorders, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Women and Newborn's Clinical Program, Intermountain Healthcare, Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Division of Hematology/Oncology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
Blood Cells Mol Dis. 2019 May;76:59-62. doi: 10.1016/j.bcmd.2019.02.001. Epub 2019 Feb 8.
Serum ferritin reflects total body iron stores, thus a low serum ferritin is used as a parameter of iron deficiency. In healthy adults in Japan, urine ferritin levels were about 5% of serum ferritin levels, with a correlation coefficient of 0.79. It is not known whether a low urine ferritin could serve as a non-invasive screen for iron deficiency. If so, this might be useful for neonates and young children, avoiding phlebotomy to screen for iron deficiency. However, for urinary ferritin screening to be feasible, ferritin must be measurable in the urine and correlate with serum ferritin. Testing should also clarify whether the iron content of ferritin in serum and urine are similar. In this pilot feasibility study we measured ferritin in paired serum and urine samples of healthy adult males, healthy term neonates, growing preterm neonates, and children who had very high serum ferritin levels from liver disorders or iron overload. We detected ferritin in every urine sample, and found a correlation with paired serum ferritin (Spearman correlation coefficient 0.78 of log-transformed values). These findings suggest merit in further studying urinary ferritin in select populations, as a potential non-invasive screen to assess iron stores.
血清铁蛋白反映全身铁储存情况，因此低血清铁蛋白被用作缺铁的一个参数。在日本的健康成年人中，尿铁蛋白水平约为血清铁蛋白水平的5%，相关系数为0.79。尚不清楚低尿铁蛋白是否可作为缺铁的非侵入性筛查指标。如果是这样，这可能对新生儿和幼儿有用，可避免通过静脉穿刺来筛查缺铁情况。然而，要使尿铁蛋白筛查可行，铁蛋白必须在尿液中可测量且与血清铁蛋白相关。检测还应明确血清和尿液中铁蛋白的铁含量是否相似。在这项初步可行性研究中，我们测量了健康成年男性、足月健康新生儿、生长中的早产新生儿以及因肝脏疾病或铁过载导致血清铁蛋白水平非常高的儿童的配对血清和尿液样本中的铁蛋白。我们在每个尿液样本中都检测到了铁蛋白，并发现其与配对的血清铁蛋白相关（对数转换值的斯皮尔曼相关系数为0.78）。这些发现表明，在特定人群中进一步研究尿铁蛋白作为评估铁储存的潜在非侵入性筛查指标具有价值。
