Abstract
Clinical implications of serum ferritin levels were studied in patients with hepatobiliary diseases. Hyperferritinemia was found in patients with acute hepatitis, chronic active hepatitis, cirrhosis, primary liver cancer, cholangioma and haemochromatosis. There was a good correlation between serum ferritin and glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase (GOT) in patients with hepatitis (r=0.52). There was no correlation between serum ferritin and iron in hepatobiliary diseases, but a significant correlation was observed between serum ferritin and transferrin saturation in patients with cirrhosis (r=0.66). Serum ferritin level showed no dependency on the results of ICG test in patients with liver diseases. A high acidic ferritin level was demonstrated in 65% of patients with primary liver cancer. In the case of acute hepatitis, alteration in serum ferritin was accompanied by proportional change in serum GOT. In the case of choledocholithiasis, decrease of serum ferritin was accompanied by decrease of serum alkaline phosphatase and GOT following papillotomy. Serum ferritin in hepatic vein tended to be lower than that in the portal vein in cirrhosis and chronic active hepatitis. It was suggested that the elevation of serum ferritin in hepatobiliary diseases was due to release of ferritin from damaged liver cells, disturbance of biliary passages and increased production of ferritin by tumor cells. These results indicate that serum ferritin is just as useful as the conventional liver function tests in monitoring the progress of the disease during treatment in patients with hepatobiliary diseases.
