[Soluble transferrin receptors: significance and diagnostic value in anemia]

The study was undertaken for the purpose of demonstrating a diagnostic importance of determining the level of soluble transferrin receptors not only in the diagnosis of iron-deficiency conditions (IDC) or in the differential diagnosis of anemia in a chronic disease (ACD) and of iron-deficiency anemia (IDA) but also in making a diagnosis in case of transfusion-dependent patients with Cooley's anemia. The iron metabolism (including determination of the serum iron (SI), of the total iron-binding ability (TIBA), of saturation of transferrin with iron (STFI), of serum transferrin (ST), and of soluble transferrin receptors (s-STR) was examined in 31 patients with different-genesis anemias, aged 3 to 7. Diagnoses were made for all children on the basis of the standard clinical-and-laboratory examinations and tests. A pattern of iron-metabolism parameters, typical of this pathology, was detected in all IDC patients; it is noteworthy, that the s-STR concentration amounted in this category to 9.4 +/- 1.35 mg/l, which essentially topped the normal values. It can be concluded on the basis of the obtained results that s-STR can be regarded as a key IDC marker. There was an increased SF (up to 324 +/- 64.5 mkg/L) alongside with hypoferremia in the ACD patients; the s-STR content was found to be within the reference values (3.21 +/- 0.55 mg/L), the determination of s-STR can be regarded as a test in the differential diagnosis of IDC and ACD. The results of s-STR research ranged, in patients with Cooley's anemia, drastically from 0.8 mg/L to 17 mg/L; it is noteworthy, that there was a reliable dependence on an adequacy of the conducted therapy in case of such patients. The highest sSTR values were found in children with the hereditary spherocytic hemolytic anemia (11.85 +/- 2.5 mg/L), which is, apparently, explained by a proliferative super-activity of the bone marrow observed in this pathology.