Clinical and Experimental Studies on the Iron Metabolism in Diphtheria Patients

I. Clinical Studies

Abstract

The serum iron level was determined by means of Matsubara method with 30 healthy persons as contrast and with 45 diphtheria patients (5 times before and after the therapy, in total 238 times) treated at the Komagome Hospital from August 1956 to March 1957.
The results were as follows:
1) Healthy persons:
The serum iron level ranged in adult males from 92 mcg/dl to 169 mcg/dl, the average being 127.5 mcg/dl. In adult females from 86 mcg/dl to 162 mcg/dl, the average 116.0 mcg/dl. In infants from 82 mcg/dl to 153 mcg/dl, the average 114.4 mcg/dl. The normal range of infant serum iron level was fixed by the author for the present at 80-160 mcg/d1.
2) A fall of serum iron level was recognized at the beginning of the diphtheria disease, without demonstrating any strict relation to the day of illness.
3) Concerning the shift of serum iron level in various types of the disease, the patients of nasal diphtheria showed the normal range of value without any fall at the onset, whereas the majority of pharyngeal, nasopharyngeal and laryngeal diphtheria patients demonstrated a fall of serum level in this stage.
4) According to the severity of the disease, some slight cases demonstrated no decline of serum iron at the beginning, whereas all the moderate and severe cases demonstrated a decline at this time.
5) The severe cases tended to require many days to recover to the normal iron level.
6) The fall of the serum iron level observed at the beginning gradually recovered by the therapy in 3 days to the normal level in more than half of the cases. There were only a few cases which demonstrated even in a week a decrease of iron level.
7) No particular difference was recognized among the various therapeutic methods.