Effects of heavy alcohol consumption on serum ferritin concentrations
Meyer, T.E.; Kassianides, C.; Bothwell, T.H.; Green, A.
South African Medical Journal 66(15): 573-575
1984
ISSN/ISBN: 0256-9574 PMID: 6149624 Document Number: 241677
Serum ferritin and hepatic enzyme concentrations were measured in 30 alcoholic subjects. Both the serum ferritin and gamma-glutamyltranspeptidase (GGT) values were raised in 23 subjects and a significant correlation was noted between the two measurements (r = 0,51; P less than 0,01). There was, however, no correlation between the initial serum ferritin concentration and the serum alanine transaminase and serum aspartate transaminase concentrations. The serum ferritin and GGT levels were followed serially during a period of abstinence in 9 subjects; values fell in parallel in all of them. The data indicate that a serum ferritin level above 300 micrograms/l is very unlikely to be the result of alcohol-induced liver damage if the serum GGT value is less than 50 U/l. The combined measurement of serum ferritin and GGT values should therefore prove useful in epidemiological studies concerned with defining the prevalence in different population groups of the HLA-linked iron-loading gene that leads to the clinical disorder of idiopathic haemochromatosis.