Iron Status Blood Tests

Here's what an iron status test can tell you:

1. Serum Iron: This measures the amount of iron circulating in your blood. It reflects the iron available for use by your body.
2. Transferrin: Measuring transferrin levels in the blood can provide information about a person's iron status. Low levels of transferrin can indicate liver disease or malnutrition, while high levels can be a sign of iron deficiency anemia.
3. Ferritin: Ferritin is a protein that stores iron in your body. Ferritin levels in the blood reflect the amount of iron stored in your body. Low ferritin levels are indicative of iron deficiency, while high levels may indicate iron overload or conditions such as inflammation.
4. TIBC stands for Total Iron-Binding Capacity. It's a blood test that measures your blood's ability to bind to iron and transport it throughout your body. A TIBC test measures the amount of transferrin in your blood that's available to bind to iron. 
5. Transferrin saturation, sometimes referred to as Tsat, is a measurement of how much iron is bound to transferrin in your blood compared to how much transferrin can hold total. It's basically a percentage of how "full" transferrin is with iron.