Hyperferritinaemia and iron overload in Asian patients: lessons from an Australian tertiary centre experience.

Danny Con, Amanda J Nicoll

Internal medicine journal 2021 May

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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. © 2021 Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

Citation

Danny Con, Amanda J Nicoll. Hyperferritinaemia and iron overload in Asian patients: lessons from an Australian tertiary centre experience. Internal medicine journal. 2021 May;51(5):802-805