blood test results

[Tanyanarialucia1965]

keeping an eye on my blood levels as I’m coeliac and have PA, my ferritin has come back as 58 which needs no further action.. is this still on the low side?

[Nackapan]

mine went yo 29 and I had symptoms

my daughters 10!

I've read and been told to try and kerp above 50 and nearer 70f you have hair loss.

mine seems fine above 45

but if you have symptoms of hair loss or restless legs. Shaky ect I would ask about taking iron.

58 is otherwise okay 👍 ( in my opinion -non medic)

your other iron measurements like HB.

all in range I expect. If no further action.

[Tanyanarialucia1965 in reply to Nackapan]

that’s very helpful thankyou… I’ll take an iron pill every few days I think to keep it stable!

[jade_s in reply to Tanyanarialucia1965]

It's best to get a full serum iron panel before starting iron. Ferritin does not always track iron. It can be high compared to iron during inflammation and low in other conditions i can't quite remember now. So it's possible to be too high or low in iron even when ferritin looks ok. And excessively high iron levels can damage organs, so better safe than sorry.

tests to get:

serum iron

TIBC

% saturation

[FlipperTD in reply to Tanyanarialucia1965]

Scientist, not medic.

If you have easy access to a regular FBC [not TOO regular; we're already busy! Monthly or quarterly would be fine] then keep an eye on your Hb, MCV, MCH and RDW. If any of them start to wander [first ones go down in iron deficiency, RDW would probably go up] then that's the time to consider iron tablets. As others have mentioned, too much iron is dangerous, and really dangerous! We aren't designed to cope with excess iron, and we tend to store it everywhere. The only 'natural' way to get rid of iron is down to blood loss. There are drugs that will remove excess, but it's better to avoid it in the first place. As others have highlighted, an iron panel is helpful.

Good luck.

[Nackapan in reply to FlipperTD]

A question.

Recent blood results all familiar apart from.

Transferrin .Total plasma iron level. 10.2umol/L(10.7-32.2) under range

Transferrin 2.45g/l(0.3-5.6)

transferrin saturation 17% (15-45.0)

Not on any previous results:

Well not in that format

did find

plasma iron level. 16.2umol/L(10.7-32.2) on previous print out

plasma total iron binding capacity 57umol/L(40 -70) on previous print out.

Is this the same ?

Just wondered why transferrin not written in any other results?

As if that the case only change is going under range in plasma iron level.

All other iron results stable and in range.

No action required on report.

Just irritating me that's it's put in a different way.

Does this make sense to you

Thanks for any insight

I will of course eventually check with Gp as on prescribed iron whether to carry on or not.

But of course thst could take weeks !

[FlipperTD in reply to Nackapan]

Scientist, not medic. I can't advise on treatment but I'll try my best to interpret questions.

TIBC and Transferrin are effectively the same thing but done by different methods, so you'll get one, or the other, but not both.

Transferrin transports iron in the blood. TIBC is a measure of the amount of iron that the transferrin can carry. This is in excess to the amount of iron that is already being carried [plasma/serum iron]. If the lab doesn't or didn't measure transferrin at the time of the sample, it won't mention transferrin on the report.

I realise this probably doesn't answer your question entirely. Sorry.

[Nackapan in reply to FlipperTD]

Thanks at least I now know a slightly different test .