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Hyperferritinaemia and iron overload in Asian patients: lessons from an Australian tertiary centre experience
Author(s) -
Con Danny,
Nicoll Amanda J.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
internal medicine journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 1444-0903
DOI - 10.1111/imj.15316
Subject(s) - medicine , serum ferritin , malignancy , ferritin , genotype , gastroenterology , pediatrics , gene , genetics , biology
Iron overload is described in Asian patients but presents with a different phenotype and genotype compared to Caucasian patients. We retrospectively identified 64 Asian patients and compared them to 64 matched non‐Asian patients with at least one episode of serum ferritin >500 μg/L. Of the Asian patients, one (1.6%) had proven iron overload, while other common causes of hyperferritinaemia included recent blood transfusion (47%), acute infection (11%) and haematological malignancy (8%). A greater proportion of non‐Asian patients had hyperferritinaemia secondary to high alcohol intake. Iron overload is rare in Asians and unexplained hyperferritinaemia in Asian patients is more likely to be due to other factors.