SERUM FERRITIN LEVELS IN PATIENTS WITH HBV AND HDV-RELATED CIRRHOSIS

SEHMUS OLMEZ*, MEHMET ASLAN**, BUNYAMIN SARITAŞ***, MEHMET SUAT YALCIN****, ADNAN TAS****, RAGIP BALAHAROGLU*****

*Yuzuncu Yil University, Medical Faculty, Department of Gastroenterology, Van, Turkey - **Yuzuncu Yil University, Medical Faculty, Department of Internal Medicine, Van, Turkey - ***Elazig Medical Park Hospital, Department of Gastroenterology, Elazig, Turkey - ****Adana Numune Research and Education Hospital, Department of Gastroenterology, Adana, Turkey - *****Yuzuncu Yil University, Medical Faculty, Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Van, Turkey

Aim: Several studies have investigated serum ferritin levels in patients with chronic liver diseases, such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, alcoholic liver disease, hepatitis C virus or hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatitis and cirrhosis. However, there is no data on serum ferritin levels in patients with hepatitis D virus (HDV)-related cirrhosis. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether there are differences in serum ferritin levels among patients with HBV-related cirrhosis, HDV-related cirrhosis and healthy subjects.

Materials and methods: Thirty-one patients with HBV-related cirrhosis, 33 patients with HDV-related cirrhosis, and 51 healthy controls were included in the study. Serum iron parameters including serum iron (SI), total iron binding capacity (TIBC) and ferritin were measured in these groups.

Results: The average serum ferritin levels of patients with HDV-related cirrhosis, HBV-related cirrhosis and controls were 173.7±161.3, 168.2±165.1 and 86.3±58.4; respectively. The HBV-related cirrhosis and HDV-related cirrhosis groups had higher ferritin levels than the control group. However, there were no statistically significant differences between patients with HBV-related cirrhosis and control groups and HDV-related cirrhosis and HBV- related cirrhosis (all, p>0.05). On the contrary, comparison between HDV-related cirrhosis and control group was statistically significant (p=0.004).

Conclusions: HBV and HDV-related cirrhosis patients had higher ferritin levels and lower total iron binding capacity (TIBC) than healthy controls. The presence of HDV-related cirrhosis affects serum ferritin levels. Therefore, increased ferritin levels may play a role in the pathogenesis HDV-related cirrhosis.