Abstract:

Objective To investigate the role of serum soluble transferrin receptor（sTfR） in the diagnosis of adult iron deficiency anemia（IDA）,to observe the correlations between serum iron（SI）,total iron binding capacity（TIBC） and sTfR,and to analyze the diagnostic efficiency of sTfR and sTfR/SI ratio. Methods A total of 79 patients with IDA and 50 patients with other types of anemia,including 35 cases of renal anemia,7 cases of megaloblastic anemia and 8 cases of aplastic anemia,were enrolled. Totally,60 healthy adults were enrolled as control group. Their serum samples were collected. Serum sTfR was determined by immunoturbidimetry assay. SI and TIBC were determined by colorimetry method. The diagnostic efficiency of sTfR and sTfR/SI ratio were analyzed by receiver operating characteristic（ROC） curve analysis. The correlations between SI,TIBC and sTfR were analyzed by regression analysis. Results In healthy adults,there was no statistical significance of sTfR between males and females（P=0.389）. The level of sTfR in IDA group was higher than those in other anemia group and control group（P<0.01）. In the diagnosis of IDA,the area under curve（AUC） of sTfR was 0.985（P<0.01）. The optimal cut-off value of sTfR was 77.42 nmol/L,and the sensitivity and specificity were 93.67% and 96.08%,respectively. There was a negative correlation between sTfR and SI（r=-0.796,P<0.01）,and sTfR was positively correlated with TIBC（r=0.668,P<0.01）. The sTfR/SI ratio in IDA group was higher than those in other anemia group and control group（P<0.01）. In the diagnosis of IDA,the AUC of sTfR/SI ratio was 0.998（P<0.01）. The optimal cut-off value was 11.84. The sensitivity and specificity were 93.70% was 100.00%,respectively. Conclusions The indicator, sTfR, is of significance in the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of IDA,sTfR/SI ratio can be used as a diagnostic indicator of IDA,and its diagnostic efficiency is better than that of sTfR.

Key words: Soluble transferrin receptor, Serum iron, Total iron binding capacity, Iron deficiency anemia