Diurnal Variation of Serum Iron Level among Apparently Healthy Sudanese Adults

Background: Assessment of iron status in clinical studies is often based on a single blood sample, Thus if diurnal variations in serum iron levels is large (morning samples were assumed to be higher than afternoon or evening levels).This may lead to the individual iron status may be misinterpreted especially in case of regular follow up of patients under iron therapy.

Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to study the diurnal variation in serum iron levels among apparently healthy adult Sudanese volunteers.

Materials and Methods: A total of 70 apparently healthy individuals were recruited to participate in this study during the period from March to May 2013 in Khartoum state, their age ranged from 17 to 35 years, out of them, 31 (44.5%) were males and rest 39 (55.5%) females. Three ml of veinous blood sample was collected from each participant into lithium heparin anticoagulant containers two times at 8:00 AM and at 5:00PM. The serum iron level was determined using COBAS INTEGRA system (chemistry analyzer).

Results: The result showed that there was no significant difference in mean serum iron level between morning and evening samples in males (p value >0.05) whereas it was significant in females (p<0.05).

Conclusion: There was an obvious difference between morning and evening concentration of serum iron and there was significantly different in means according to gender.