Ferritin in serum: diagnosis of iron deficiency and iron overload in infants and children

Ferritin in serum was quantitated by radioimmunoassay to determine the use-fulness of this assay in reflecting iron stores during normal development and in the diagnosis of iron deficiency and iron overload in infants and children. In the adult, serum ferritin has been reported to correspond to the magnitude of iron stores throughout a wide range. In 573 normal infants and children, we found the con-centration of serum ferritin to parallel known changes in iron stores during de-velopment. The median serum ferritin con. centration was 101 ng/mI at birth, rose to 356 ng/mI at 1 mo of age, and then fel