Phenotypic expression of the HFE gene mutation (C282Y) among the hospitalised population

Editor,—Distante and colleagues ( (2000) Gut 47:575–9; [OpenUrl][1] ) found that C282Y homozygotes detected by testing all patients acutely admitted to hospital for non-liver associated problems had a considerably lower transferrin saturation during the acute illness (median 27%) compared with at follow up (median 71%). Indeed their strategy of performing C282Y genotyping on all acute patients with a raised transferrin saturation (>50%) would have detected only 1/14 (8%) C282Y homozygotes. This is in contrast with our study of HFE (C282Y) gene mutation and phenotypic expression in outpatients referred to a liver clinic.1 In this setting we found that … Dr S Distante. Sonia.distante{at}ioks.uio.no [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DGut%26rft.volume%253D32%26rft.spage%253D133%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx