Assessment of serum ferritn level in detection of iron deficiency anaemia in paediatric patients: Prospective analysis

Introduction: Major form in which iron is stored in the body is serum ferritin. It can detect early changes in body iron store. It causes little patient discomfort as compared to bone marrow iron studies. In this study, we used serum ferritin level to assess the level of iron storage in the children less than five years of age. Iron stores are depleted below this value. Materials & Methods: Sample size includes 100 children under the age of 5 years from the opd of the department. The blood was divided into two halves, one was sent for cbc evaluation and from other half the serum was separated through centrifugation for the estimation of serum ferritin level. Results: The range of the serum iron level in the study was 0.2 – 340 ng/ml. The mean serum iron level in the study was 51.8 ng/ml. Out of 100 patients, there were 76 patients with serum level less than 12 ng/ml; they were iron deficient. There were 20 children with iron deficiency in the infants group, there were 34 patients in toddlers group and there were 24 children in preschool group. Discussion & Conclusion: For the early detection of the status of the iron stores in the body is done by serum ferritin concentration. Iron deficiency anemia continues to be a significant public health problem in the world. Serum ferritin level is a good screening test for early detection of iron deficiency anemia in children less than 5 years of age. When it is used in assess with other test for iron status in body, it is considered as more specific indicator for the detection of the iron stores.