Evaluation of iron status: zinc protoporphyrin vis-a-vis bone marrow iron stores.

ABSTRACT

Zinc protoporphyrin (ZPP) in the red cells is an indicator of iron status in the bone marrow (BM) and can be easily measured by Protofluor-Z Hematofluorometer from Helena Laboratories. It is well known that bone marrow iron is a gold standard for the diagnosis of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) even in the pre-latent phase. Hence, it was considered pertinent to evaluate the diagnostic utility of ZPP in comparison with bone marrow iron stores. 107 random BM were selected over a period of 2(1/2) years; in each case, RBC indices where recorded along with ZPP and Perls' Prussian blue reaction for BM iron stores. The specificity and sensitivity were found to be 77.8% and sensitivity 69.8%, respectively. However, the sensitivity increased up to 96.2% when Hb, RBC indices and ZPP were considered for the diagnosis of IDA.