Red cell basic ferritin concentration in sensorineural hearing loss.

Red cell basic ferritin (RCBF) was measured in 62 healthy subjects with normal hearing and 224 patients with different kinds of sensorineural hearing loss, compared with serum ferritin, haemoglobin, serum iron and circadian variation in the serum iron levels. The results showed that the RCBF concentrations in most kinds of sensorineural hearing loss were significantly lower than those in normal hearing status. It is conceivable that the RCBF assay can be used to evaluate the adequacy of iron stores that are useful in times of urgent iron needs and to diagnose relative iron deficiency in those patients with some other normal laboratory assays related to iron metabolism.