Abstract
Out of 120 patients subjects to maintenance hemodialysis, there were selected 25 patients who suggested iron deficiency auemia, but neither had been subject to parenteral iron therapy nor blood transfusion, nor had any factors such as hepatic diseases and infections which influence the behavior of ferritin for the past 3 months before the study, and then iron was given parenterally to them. Red blood cell ferritin and serum ferritin were determined before and after the iron administration to study the relation between the obtained values and anemia. In the results serum ferritin was higher in the patients under hemodialysis than in normal ones, was increased significantly by iron administration, and kept the level for a long time. Red blood cell ferritin was also increased significantly by iron administration. In the relation with anemia, serum ferritin fluctuated so greatly that the correlations with the degree of anemia and its improvement were not so clearly observed, while red blood cell ferritin was significantly low in the anemia-improved group compared with that in the anemia-non-improved group; thus, the value can be used as a reliable guide to the iron therapy in hemodialysis patients.
