You need iron to make red blood cells. Iron is also an important part of hemoglobin, a protein in your blood that helps carry oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body.
Uses of Iron Status Profile;
- To evaluate your body’s current level of iron.
- To help diagnose iron deficiency or iron overload.
- Iron tests evaluate the amount of iron in the body by measuring several substances in the blood.
Need to get tested, if you have;
- Low hemoglobin and hematocrit on a complete blood count (CBC)
- Anemia, or iron overload (excess iron).
Symptoms of low iron:
Symptoms of high iron:
- Weakness or a lack of energy
- Stomach pain
- Joint pain
- Tiredness
Other related Iron tests;
- Serum iron testâIt measures the level of iron in the liquid portion of the blood.
- Transferrin testâ It directly measures the level of transferrin in the blood. Transferrin is the protein that transports iron around in the body.
- TIBC (total iron-binding capacity)âIt measures the total amount of iron that can be bound by proteins in the blood.
- UIBC (unsaturated iron-binding capacity)âThe UIBC test determines the reserve capacity of transferrin, i.e., the portion of transferrin that has not yet been saturated with iron. UIBC also reflects transferrin levels.
- Transferrin saturationâ a calculation that reflects the percentage of transferrin that is saturated with iron (100 x serum iron/TIBC).
- Serum ferritinâ It reflects the amount of stored iron in the body.
- Absorbing too much iron over time can lead to the progressive buildup of iron compounds in organs and may eventually cause their dysfunction and failure.Â
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