Introduction: One out of every third person is suffering from anaemia throughout the world; moreover half of this anaemic population are suffering with iron deficiency. The credibility of serum ferritin and transferrin for the diagnosis of Iron Deficiency Anaemia (IDA) is still suspicious as different studies have shown different results. Material and Methods: This was a cross sectional study conducted in the pathology department of a Tertiary Health Care Setting. Study population consisted anaemic patients of 18 to 60 years of both sexes. Bone marrow was aspirated and smears were stained using the May-Grunwald-Giemsa stain. With an automated hematology analyzer blood counts were measured. Serum transferrin receptor assays were performed using a commercially available kit based on a polyclonal antibody in a EIA format. Results: The present study included 100 patients suffering from anaemia. Out of these 100 patients, 42 anaemic patients were having iron deficiency; while 58 patients were having non iron deficiency etiology. Transferrin saturation level was significantly low in 11.63% in IDA patients compared to 30.2% in anaemic patients without iron deficiency with p-value <0.01. Serum ferritin level was significantly lower in IDA patients (78.6 ± 33.9 ng/mL vs 180.8 ± 46.2 ng/mL, p<0.01) in comparison to patients without iron deficiency etiology of anaemia. Conclusion: Finding of current study showed that high values of Serum transferrin receptor assays and low level of serum ferritin and transferrin saturation levels has been found associated with IDA. These results suggest that transferrin and serum ferritin should be considered as reliable markers for the diagnosis of IDA. Moreover, this method may be used as a lesser-invasive technique for the diagnosis of IDA; instead of using invasive and painful methods like bone marrow aspiration test. However, studies on larger populations are required to establish serum ferritin and transferrin studies as primary determinants for the diagnosis of IDA.

Keywords: IDA; Anaemia; Serum ferritin; Transferrin.