A guide to diagnosis of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in digestive diseases

Table 2 Differences between the serum values of iron-deficiency anemia, anemia of chronic diseases, and anemia of mixed origin

	Iron-deficiency anemia	Anemia of chronic diseases	Anemia of mixed origin
Serum iron	Decreased	Decreased	Decreased
Transferrin	Increased	Decreased or normal	Decreased
Transferrin saturation	Decreased	Decreased	Decreased
Ferritin1	Decreased (< 30 ng/mL)	Increased (> 100 ng/mL)	Normal
Soluble transferrin receptor	Increased	Normal	Increased or normal
C-reactive protein	Normal	Increased	Increased
Erythropoietin	Increased	Normal or slightly increased for the degree of anemia	Increased or normal

¹Ferritin values between 30 and 100 ng/mL: Make other determinations to differentiate the two entities.