{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,24]],"date-time":"2026-10-24T10:09:37Z","timestamp":1792836577894,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,26]],"date-time":"2025-01-26T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1737849600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"CSL Vifor"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Diagnostics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Iron deficiency (ID) is a critical public health issue globally and the most prevalent cause of anemia. Iron deficiency anemia (IDA) affects approximately 1.2 billion individuals worldwide, and it is estimated that non-anemic iron deficiency (NAID) is at least twice as common as IDA. Yet, there is still uncertainty about how to diagnose it in clinical practice. The serum ferritin (SF) threshold of &lt;15 ng\/mL proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) has been questioned over the last decade. The current SF thresholds are inappropriately low, and, therefore, a large portion of the population at the most significant risk of ID remain undiagnosed and untreated. The correlation between SF, hepcidin, and the physiological upregulation of iron absorption in healthy adults suggests that SF of &lt;50 ng\/mL indicates a more precise threshold for diagnosing ID in adults. Therefore, adopting the SF threshold &lt;50 ng\/mL would break up the perpetuation of an inequitable cycle of disadvantage for ID individuals, especially among women.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/diagnostics15030289","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,27]],"date-time":"2025-01-27T06:39:51Z","timestamp":1737959991000},"page":"289","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Defining Global Thresholds for Serum Ferritin: A Challenging Mission in Establishing the Iron Deficiency Diagnosis in This Era of Striving for Health Equity"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"15","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3269-3780","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rodolfo Delfini","family":"Cancado","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Hematology, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias M\u00e9dicas da Santa Casa de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo 01224-001, Brazil"},{"name":"Department of Oncology, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias M\u00e9dicas da Santa Casa de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo 01224-001, Brazil"},{"name":"Hospital Samaritano de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo 01232-010, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lauro Augusto Caetano","family":"Leite","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Hematology, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias M\u00e9dicas da Santa Casa de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo 01224-001, Brazil"},{"name":"Department of Oncology, Faculdade de Ci\u00eancias M\u00e9dicas da Santa Casa de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo 01224-001, Brazil"},{"name":"Hospital Samaritano de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo 01232-010, Brazil"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2052-8959","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Manuel","family":"Mu\u00f1oz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Peri-Operative Transfusion Medicine, School of Medicine, 29010 Malaga, Spain"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,1,26]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"30","DOI":"10.1182\/blood-2018-05-815944","article-title":"Iron deficiency","volume":"133","author":"Camaschella","year":"2019","journal-title":"Blood"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"233","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(20)32594-0","article-title":"Iron deficiency","volume":"397","author":"Pasricha","year":"2021","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"mfab021","DOI":"10.1093\/mtomcs\/mfab021","article-title":"Chemistry and biology of ferritin","volume":"13","author":"Plays","year":"2021","journal-title":"Metallomics"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"344","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cell.2016.12.034","article-title":"A Red carpet for iron metabolism","volume":"168","author":"Muckenthaler","year":"2017","journal-title":"Cell"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"615","DOI":"10.1182\/blood-2013-06-508325","article-title":"A systematic analysis of global anemia burden from 1990 to 2010","volume":"123","author":"Kassebaum","year":"2014","journal-title":"Blood"},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"World Health Organization (2020). 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