Usefulness of serum transferrin receptor and serum iron in diagnosis of iron deficiency in pregnancy

Objective: To evaluate the performance of sTfR and SI in the assessment of iron deficiency in pregnant women. Methods: A total of 60 blood samples obtained from 30 pregnant women with iton - deficient anemia and 30 normal pregnant mother separately were measured by Immunoassay. Results: In 30 pregnant women with iron- deficient anemia, the median of sTfR and SI were 31.3860±6.7990 nmol/ L and 9.53±4.2622nmoI/L, respectively. In 30 nonnal pregnant women, the median of sTfR and SF were 25.2080 ± 6.9032 nmol/L and 13.3733±4.8359 ng/L, respectively. The median of sTfR and SI between these two groups have markedly differences(P0.05,P0.01). The specificity of sTfR and SF were 83.3% and 80.0% separately and the sensitivity of sTfR and SF were 70% and 53.3% separately. Conclusion: In diagnoses anemia of pregnancy women, sTfR appeared to be a better diagnostic tests than SI for iron deficiency in pregnancy.