This study aimed to assess the iron functional state in a population of 43 high performance Colombian athletes belonging to Cali skating League (41.9%) and water polo (58.1%, aged 17 - 43, determining serum ferritin, soluble transferrin receptor and soluble transferrin receptor index, demonstrating the presence of subclinical iron deficiencies that lead to risks in the performance of the athlete. 55.8% of the athletes showed normal results, 41.9% had serum ferritin values below the biological reference interval and 2.3% subclinical iron deficiency grade II. The results does not show significant difference between these disciplines.

The measurement of hemoglobin within the range considered normal does not determine the functional iron deposit. The aim of this study was the description of the behavior of hematological serum ferritin, soluble transferring receptor and soluble transferrin receptor index-ferritin, compared with hemoglobin to detect subclinical stages I and II in 92 children and 81 girls between 1 and 10 years of age in Colombian populations located at different levels above the sea level. For statistical analysis the descriptive analysis and the nonparametric test of Kruskal-Wallis are used. The support software for the analysis of results is SPSS 15.0. A P value of less than 0.05 in the tests was considered significant.The hemoglobin concentration was within reference values, however, the index of soluble transferrin receptorferritin detected 9% of the studied children with subclinical status grade I, II, 3% with chronic disease, the 2% anemia of chronic disease accompanied by iron deficiency anemia, 14% of children had acute or chronic infectious process without anemia and 76% had adequate iron stores. The results for serum ferritin for the soluble transferrin receptor for the index and soluble transferrin receptor-ferritin exhibited similar behavior in children regardless of the height above sea level. This was confirmed by using statistical tests to reveal that the rate determining soluble transferrin receptor-ferritin is an excellent tool to detect subclinical iron deficiency.

Worldwide, iron deficiency anemia is the most prevalence anemia, regardless of race, age, gender or geographical origin; alike there is insufficient the data and reports on the prevalence of subclinical iron states especially in the African descendant community national and internationally. The research aimed to characterize a healthy male population of African descendent aged between 16 and 30 years through the index (sTfR-Log FS) in 73 African descent men living in San Basilio de Palenque and Cartagena de Indias DT y C. Erythroid index were determined: hemoglobin (Hb), hematocrit (HCT), peripheral blood smear evaluation, the soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR), serum ferritin (SF) and soluble transferrin receptor index - Logarithm of serum ferritin (sTfR-Log FS). Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software version 17.0.Using the sTfR-Log FS, at San Basilio de Palenque, the hematologic finding by algorithm is most often associated with chronic disease along with iron deficiency (41.6%), followed by subclinical iron deficiency stage II (33.3%). In Cartagena, chronic iron deficiency (49%) was the most frequent found it, followed by subclinical iron deficiency stage II (20.41%). The two populations showed similar behavior in different hematologic variables, these results becoming pioneers for future research of the subclinical stages preceding iron deficiency in Colombia’s Afro-descendants.

In the present work we studied the erythropoietic response to chronic phlebotomy-induced anemia and changes in cellular and systemic body iron distribution. Female mice (CF1 strain, n =32) were divided into control and experimental groups, following a paired experimental design. Iron distribution in spleen and liver during chronic phlebotomy was assessed by morphological studies and erythropoietic activity by hematological studies. Statistical differences were determined by Student test. The significance level was set at p

Realizar un diagnóstico que sea altamente sensible, específico y no invasivo del estado del hierro celular ha sido un desafío en el ·rea de la hematología. Por su sensibilidad y especificidad, la biopsia de médula ósea sigue considerándose el “ gold standard ”  (1), pero el costo, riesgo y molestia propio de una prueba invasiva motivan a buscar otras alternativas.