Ferritin levels in patients with microcytic anaemia complicating pulmonary tuberculosis

In a sample of 33 Nepali patients with microcytic, hypochromic anaemia complicating pulmonary tuberculosis, only 15% were iron deficient as judged by absence of stainable bone marrow iron. Individual ferritin levels in the iron deficient subjects were all within the normal range, although as a group their mean ferritin was significantly lower than in the non-iron deficient patients (104 micrograms/l v 349 micrograms/l p less than 0.05). It is suggested that in pulmonary tuberculosis ferritin synthesis is stimulated by the inflammatory process regardless of iron status and that the level of ferritin below which iron deficiency may be diagnosed is much higher than the accepted level of 15 micrograms/l.