Transferrin levels

[rlsunlocked]

Hi,

Anybodys thoughts on transferrin levels?

TSAT seems to be used as ONE marker for "iron sufficiency", and it is rare to see any discussion about the context. TSAT is only a calculation based on transferrin levels and serum iron. Both values are affected by inflammation, nutrition etc.

I find this a bit disturbing, since I think ( correct me if I am wrong) that the potential capacity to carry more iron really depends on the absolute transferrin value, and not the TSAT value.

Is there anything about this in the case of RLS?

I would love to hear any knowlegable person chime in on this

/rlsunlocked

also, thanks to all posters on this forum, sharing so much information, it is really helpful!

[Munroist]

As far as RLS is concerned TSAT is used as a guide to whether an iron infusion could be given. The Mayo Algorithm specifies that TSAT needs to be less than 45% for an infusion to be given, along with other criteria. For RLS the main measure of iron levels is ferritin. As you say TSAT is a derived number and its interpretation is something a haematologist could advise on.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tra...

[rlsunlocked in reply to Munroist]

Yes! That is why i think it is interesting.

If your ferritin is 25, your transferrin is in the lowest range of normal, and you ingested some iron foods or whatever something keeping your serum iron "ok", then you will have a highish TSAT, maybe not over 45, but still giving the impression of sufficient iron.

I _think_ this maybe is not a problem for the majority, but I know there is a group of people that actually have transferrin levels in the lowest range, despite having low ferritin (the idea is that transferrin production is guided by iron levels, ie low levels increasing the transferrin production) But, transferrin is also affected by inflammation and protein nutrution, so it might be that there are cases you need to look att this part too. I have seldom seen this discussed.

[707twitcher]

I'm curious, too. I typically have a reasonable iron level but low transferrin, leading to high saturation %, which basically dictates no iron supplementation. This leaves me stuck with a low-ish ferritin (50 or so).

[rlsunlocked in reply to 707twitcher]

Yes, if ferritin levels matters, then it is ideed a problem that you can get stuck with low levels because of low transferrin (and/or high serum iron)