Clinical significance of urine ferritin in patients with cerebral infarction

Objective To find a indicator in urine to assist diagnosis of cerebral infarction, we investigated the changes of urine ferritin in patients with cerebral infarction. Methods Collected serum from 30 healthy volunteers and 53 patients with cerebral infarction(CI), with ratio of males to females 19∶11 vs. 30∶23, and average age was （56±11） vs. （63±11） respectively.Collected urine from 39 healthy volunteers and 33 patients with CI, with ratio of males to females 25∶14 vs. 20∶13, and average age was （57±10） vs. （64±11） respectively.Ferritin concentration in all samples was detected with the chemical luminescence method, and the urine ferritin/urine cretinin (uFer/uCr) ratio was calculated.Differences of serum ferritin and uFer/uCr between healthy volunteers and CI patients were analyzed with the statistical software under Wilcoxon test.Urinary proteins were extracted with absolute ethanol.The extracted ferritin was displayed with Western blot for light chains and heavy chains to investigate the difference between healthy volunteers and CI patients. Results uFer/uCr was higher than that from healthy volunteers（U=292.00，P<0.05）, and the median was (14.86 vs. 6.22) μg/g.Moreover, after extraction of urinary proteins with alcohol, both light chains and heavy chains of ferritin in urine from CI patients were much more obvious than that from healthy volunteers. Conclusion The uFer/uCr ratio could provide a new proof to assist the diagnosis of cerebral infarction.（Chin J Lab Med，2012,35：1146-1149） Key words: Brain infarction; Urinalysis; Ferritins