Evaluation of new immunoenzymometric assay for measuring soluble transferrin receptor to detect iron deficiency in anemic patients.

During the last few years the measurement of serum-soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) has been introduced as a tool to detect iron deficiency and as an analyte to differentiate between anemia caused by iron deficiency (IDA) and that caused by chronic disease (ACD). Commercially available methods have emerged to make diagnostics by sTfR more readily accessible. We documented the analytical performance of a newly introduced IDeA sTfR immunoenzymometric assay (IEMA) by Orion Diagnostica. We also evaluated its clinical performance in 98 consecutive anemic patients, with information derived from bone marrow aspirate samples as the reference for iron status. The clinical usefulness of two other commercially available sTfR assays was assessed for comparison. The analytical performance and clinical applicability of the IDeA were sufficient to support reliable clinical work. We conclude that IDA and iron deficiency in the presence of inflammatory states can be differentiated efficiently from ACD with this new commercial test to measure sTfR.