Diabetes in HFE Hemochromatosis

Table 1

Measures of body iron stores.

Measures	Specimen	Advantages	Disadvantages	References
Iron removed to achieve iron depletion	Blood	Standard reference method; therapeutic; minimally invasive; quantitative; whole body; widely available	Lengthy; inconvenient; moderate cost	[25, 27, 30, 182, 183]
Hepatic iron content	Biopsy	Invasive; quantitative; widely available; strong correlation with quantitative phlebotomy; permits evaluation of liver histology	Possible inadequate specimen; risks of pain, bleeding, pneumothorax, bile leak; single organ; moderate cost	[25, 183, 184]
Iron in liver	SQUID	Noninvasive; quantitative	Few devices exist; not routinely available; single organ; expensive	[183, 185–187]
Iron in liver, heart, pancreas	Magnetic resonance scan	Noninvasive; quantitative; detects iron overload over wide range of concentrations	Equipment expensive; all MRI devices not calibrated to measure iron	[183, 188]
Serum ferritin	Blood	Widely available; semiquantitative; inexpensive	Elevated in many subjects with excess alcohol consumption, inflammation, infection, chronic disease, malignancy; fair correlation with measured iron stores	[25, 28, 30, 80, 182, 183]
Serum transferrin receptor/serum ferritin (sTfR/SF)	Blood	Widely available; semiquantitative; inexpensive	Unsuitable for subjects with inflammation, infection, chronic disease, malignancy; not validated for iron overload study	[189, 190]