Randomized trial assesses soluble transferrin receptor's effectiveness in identifying iron deficiency in IBD, suggesting a new diagnostic pathway.
Key Points
This study investigates the role of soluble transferrin receptor as a marker for identifying iron deficiency without anemia in inflammatory bowel disease.
Multicenter, cross-sectional study involving 411 IBD patients and 178 controls.
Iron status was classified using ECCO-defined ferritin thresholds and a stricter definition including transferrin saturation.
ROC curve analysis was conducted to determine optimal diagnostic cut-offs for sTfR.
In ulcerative colitis, IDWA patients had higher sTfR levels (median 1.20 mg/L) than non-IDWA patients (median 1.05 mg/L; P = .013).
Anemic UC patients had elevated sTfR levels (median 1.27 mg/L) compared to non-IDWA individuals (P < .001).
In Crohn's disease, sTfR levels did not significantly differ between IDWA and non-IDWA; however, anemic patients had higher sTfR levels (P = .003).