Creekside Family Health Clinic / Quality Health Care, Ketchikan, Alaska

IRON STUDY $62.00

What is it?

An iron study checks the amount of iron in the blood and how well it is being utilized in the body. Iron enables the red blood cell protein, hemoglobin, to carry oxygen to all parts of the body.

About 70% of the body's iron is bound to hemoglobin in red blood cells. The rest is bound to other proteins (transferrin in blood or ferritin in bone marrow) or stored in other body tissues. When red blood cells die, their iron is released and carried by transferrin to the bone marrow and to other organs such as the liver and spleen. In the bone marrow, iron is stored and used as needed to make new red blood cells.

The iron studies check the:

Ferritin level (see ferritin)
Amount of iron bound to transferrin in the blood (serum).
Amount of iron needed to bind to all of the transferrin. This value is called the total iron-binding capacity (TIBC).
Percentage of transferrin with iron bound to it. This value is called transferrin saturation (iron % saturation).

Why do I need it?

To help diagnose and treat the cause of fatigue and other chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, liver, gastro-intestinal, and kidney disease. The source of all the body's iron is food, such as liver and other meat, eggs, fish, and leafy green vegetables. The body needs more iron at times of growth (such as during adolescence), for pregnancy, during breast-feeding, or at times when there are low levels of iron in the body (such as after bleeding).

What do I do with the results?

If your results are ‘abnormal’ or ‘out-of-range’ from the normal, please contact a health care provider. The interpretation of any laboratory test should be made only by a licensed nurse practitioner or physician.