The Level of Ferritin in Diabetic and Nondiabetic Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

An elevated serum ferritin level is proposed as a risk factor for coronary heart disease. The role of diabetes mellitus onserum ferritin levels in myocardial infarction has recently been investigated. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects ofdiabetes mellitus on serum ferritin levels in patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI).In this study, we studied patients (104 nondiabetic, 26 diabetic patients) with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). AMI was diagnosedaccording to typical clinical history, ECG changes and cardiac enzyme elevations. Blood samples for ferritin, iron and total ironbinding capacity (TIBC) and haemogram tests were obtained in the morning within the first 3 consecutive days and were measuredby immunoradiometric assay (IRMA), ferrene assay and ferrozine assay respectively. Whole blood (K3 EDTA as anticoagulant) wasanalyzed using Beckman Coulter Hmx hematology. The comparison of groups and subgroups was done using one-way variansanalysis (ANOVA) and TukeyÕs Multiple Comparison Test respectively, while the unpaired t test and the Mann Whitney U test wereused for the analysis of the 2 groups and the qualificational data were analyzed using the chi square test .Serum ferritin levels were significantly increased in the diabetic group. The results were evaluated with a 95% safety margin (P 0. 05).In the presence of diabetes mellitus, serum ferritin levels may be elevated, which may increase the risk of coronary heart disease.