A comparison between serum ferritin concentration and the amount of bone marrow stainable iron.

There was good parallelism between serum ferritin levels and the amount of bone marrow stainable iron in 123 patients with gastritis, gastric ulcer and duodenal ulcer. A serum ferritin concentration of about 20-25 micrograms/l is the approximate level below which stainable iron cannot be demonstrated in the bone marrow.