Serum ferritin in alcoholics and the relation to liver damage, iron state and erythropoietic activity

Serum ferritin was measured in two groups of alcoholics; one comprised 71 individuals on ambulatory control and with varying current alcohol intake and the other 19 alcoholics followed with serial determinations during two weeks of abstinence Serum ferritin was elevated in 26 subjects in the larger group, and 22 of them had elevated ASAT and ALAT values. Low-grade but significant correlations were found between serum levels of ferritin and serum concentrations of some variables used to detect liver affection (ASAT, ALAT, bilirubin and gamma-GT). Serum ferritin and ASAT declined in a parallel fashion in the 19 patients studied longitudinally, so that the ferritin:ASAT ratio described a straight line. No correlation was found between serum ferritin or the serum ferritin:ASAT ratio and serum iron. Neither was any correlation observed between the magnitude of the changes in serum ferritin and the changes in serum iron, serum transferrin or circulating platelets or reticulocytes observed in the serially followed alcoholics. These data indicate that elevated serum ferritin in alcoholics is associated with the degree of liver affection and not with the degree of erythropoietic activity.