Publication:

Quantification of serum hepcidin as a potential biomarker in diagnosis of iron deficiency anaemia

Background Iron deficiency (ID) is the most prevalent nutritional deficiency and the most common cause of anemia in the world. Present study aims to detect the serum hepcidin and ferritin levels in iron deficiency induced anaemia’s and compare and correlate the values of serum hepcidin levels with their Serum ferritin levels and IL-6 levels.

Methods A total of 94 individuals were enrolled in the study. Sample for hematological evaluations were collected and estimation was carried out for biomarker estimation by ELISA method(s) using specified kit(s) procured commercially. The statistical evaluation was done using SPSS version 24.0. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Pearson's correlation tests were used to compare the variables and to see the correlation between the different variables.

Results Serum Hepcidin, a marker of iron deficiency anemia is significantly low in patients with IDA (33.23±12.46 ng/mL) than in normal with p-value <0.001 which is highly significant. In present study, we determined the cut off points differentiating IDA from healthy group which was ≤ 34.55; with AUC 0.845 (P<0.0001), 95% confidence interval was 0.755 to 0.911, and sensitivity was 98.33 % and specificity 52.94%. These cut off points had strong confidence interval and valuable predictive potential.

Conclusions Serum Hepcidin can be used as a simple and cost effective diagnostic marker for identification of anemia.