PROPRIETARY INFORMATION
CONFIDENTIAL MATERIAL
Assays/Reagents
Not for Customer Distribution
148
AEROSET
®
System Troubleshooting Guide
94816-107—November 2004
Iron
Interference Information
Desferal
is the brand name for deferoxamine mesylate or
desferoxamine; it is an iron chelating substance indicated for
the treatment of acute iron intoxication and chronic iron
overload. Desferal prevents iron from entering into further
chemical reactions and readily chelates iron from ferritin and
hemosiderin, but not readily from transferrin. It does not
combine with iron from cytochromes and hemoglobin. Young
states that Desferal (desferoxamine) chelates iron, making it
unavailable to react with most chromagens thereby giving
falsely low iron concentrations. Young also states, “At
concentrations of 250 mg/dL and higher iron concentration
reduced when measured by method on Kodak Ektachem
systems”. In addition, the Vitros uses ascorbic acid as a
reducing agent. Ascorbic acid is unique in its property not
only to reduce but also chelate iron. Iron methodologies
containing ascorbic acid are prone to over-recovery of serum
iron liberated from non-transferrin sources. In one study,
ascorbic acid significantly and selectively increased iron
concentrations and iron recovery measured on the Ektachem.
Young DS.
Effects of Drugs on Clinical Laboratory Tests
, 4th ed.
Washington, DC: AACC Press, 1995:3-361–3-364.
Letter to Editor, Underestimation of serum iron with
automated methods,
Clin Chem
1995;41:1199–1201.
Physicians’ Desk Reference
54th Edition, Montvale, NJ, Medical
Economics Company, 2000;54:2012–2013.
Kempinaire A, Laureys M, Goedhuys W, et al. Spuriously low
concentrations of serum iron measured with Generation 14
Kodak Ektachem slides: prevalence, possible causes, and partial
improvement with Generation 16 slides,
Clin Chem
1992;
38:2457–64.