Summary
The iron status of 26 patients with essential thrombocythaemia (ET) was evaluated at diagnosis by means of bone marrow iron and blood studies, including serum ferritin determination. Nine patients were males, 17 females, and the mean age was 53 years (range 7–81). A decreased or absent iron level by semiquantitative estimation on bone marrow smears was observed in 77% of patients, and 81% had a low sideroblast score. Such a marrow pattern of iron depletion was equally distributed between both sexes. Contrasting with this, normal Hb, MCV, serum iron and serum ferritin were registered in the majority of cases. According to these results, absent or decreased marrow iron would be a common feature in ET, generally not reflecting true iron deficiency, as it occurs in the remaining chronic myeloproliferative disorders. Thus, in patients in whom ET is suspected, the diagnostic criterion of ruling out iron deficiency would be better served by serum ferritin measurement than by bone marrow iron estimation.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Cervantes F, Rozman C, Brugués R, Llanas I (1984) Iron stores in chronic granulocytic leukaemia at presentation. Scand J Haematol 32: 469–474
Cervantes F, Rozman C, Piera C, Fernández MR (1986) Decreased bone iron in chronic granulocytic leukaemia: a consistent finding not reflecting iron deficiency. Blut 53: 305–308
Cook JD (1982) Clinical evaluation of iron deficiency. Semin Hematol 19: 6–18
Ellis LD, Jensen WN, Westerman MP (1964) Marrow iron: an evaluation of depleted stores in a series of 1332 needle biopsies. Ann Intern Med 61: 44–49
Fong TP, Okafor LA, Thomas Jr V, Westerman MP (1977) Stainable iron in aspirated and needle biopsy specimens of marrow: a source of error. Am J Hematol 2: 47–51
Krause JR, Brubaker D, Kaplan S (1979) Comparison of stainable iron in aspirated and needle-point biopsy specimens of bone marrow. Am J Clin Pathol 72: 68–70
Kurnick JE, Ward HP, Block MH (1972) Bone marrow sections in the differential diagnosis of polycythaemia. Arch Pathol 94: 489–499
Murphy S, Iland H, Rosenthal D, Laszlo J (1986) Essential thrombocythemia: an interim report from the Polycythemia Vera Study Group. Semin Hematol 23: 177–182
Sokal JE, Sheerin KA (1986) Decreased stainable marrow iron in chronic granulocytic leukemia. Am J Med 81: 395–399
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cervantes, F., Martí, J.M., López-Guillermo, A. et al. Iron stores in essential thrombocythaemia. Blut 58, 291–294 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00320169
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00320169