High ferritin levels?

[hopefulgirl38]

hi everyone,

Does anyone know about high ferritin levels while on treatment.  My partner did not have high iron before starting treatment but it seems his ferritin has risen.  He has 7 injections left - would they stop treatment for this?   Thanks in advance

[Alek07]

The inflammation caused by the tx itself can raise ferritin levels. In fact this is a relatively common occurence. They certainly won't stop tx because of that.

Another scenario is in cases of low hb due to hemolytic anemia caused by ribavirin. As the red cells are destroyed their iron content is released into the bloodstream and usually stored in the liver.

alek

[portann]

Hi Hopeful,

I do know a bit about this. My own ferritin shot up during treatment and it turned out to be harmless. Note, though, that there are disorders associated with elevated serum ferritin that only your doc can diagnose.

In my case (and during the course of tx), my family doc freaked and phoned my hepa, who is quite a pro in treating HCV but impatient and unkind to 'meddling' family docs. :(

The short and long of it was that my hepa said it was fine to have my ferritin at 1224 (?) during tx and that it would normalize by itself. He was absolutely right.

Dr. Dieterich, who used to be our forum medical expert, agreed:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Ferritin-Leval-is-12208/show/632936

In a nutshell, speak to your hepa about it and don't be surprised if he isn't the tiniest bit concerned, barring a serious disorder in your partner's situation:

I remember Cocksparrow explained this to me:

by CockSparrow, Jan 23, 2009 09:36PM
To: portann
I wouldnt worry about it too much.
Riba causes hemolitic anemia
and all that iron in your red blood cells has to go somewhere.

CS"

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/High-ferritin-1224/show/742647

I'll point you to some more collective ferritin wisdom from some old threads.

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/High-ferritin-1224/show/742647

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Elevated-Ferritin-Levels/show/1230231

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Hepatitis-C/Ferritin-3400/show/1245262

Hope this helps. You two are in the last stretch, so great going  and keep going.

Best wishes to you and your partner.

Susan