[A study on iron deficiency in adolescents].

The iron status of 1198 high school students, aged 16-18 years, was evaluated by measuring hemoglobin (Hb) , hematocrit (Ht) , red blood cells (RBC) , serum iron (SI) , total iron binding capacity (TIBC) and transferrin saturation (TS) from peripheral blood. The average value of Hb concentration was 14.7•}0.9g/dl in males and 12.7•}1.0 al in females. The frequency of anemia in adolescents who had Hb levels less than 13 al in males and 12 g/dl in females was 3.5% and 15.9%, respectively. In addition, a concentration of serum ferritin (SF) and free erythrocyte porphyrins (FEP) was measured in 28 anemic males, 62 anemic females, 90 nonanemic males and 150 nonanemic females. The geometric mean of SF was 62.1 ng/ml (arithmetic mean : 73.6•}40 ng/ml) in nonanemic males and 18.1 ng/ml (arithmetic mean : 30.6±27ngirrd) in nonanemic females. The percentage of subjects with a low SF concentration below 10 ng/m/ in nonanemic females was 26.0% in contrast to 1.1% in nonanemic males. In order to standardize the diagnostic parameters of screening for latent iron deficiency,