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Harold O. Douglass, Jr, MD
Roswell Park Memorial Institute Buffalo

JAMA. 1981;246(1):39.

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In Reply.—

Drs Miller and Finley and Ms Morath have correctly emphasized that the relationships between calculated serum transferrin levels using the formula serum transferrin=0.8xTIBC—43 and measured transferrin levels are approximations. Nevertheless, the "transferrin" calculated from TIBC and that directly measured bear a fairly constant mathematical relationship. Both the formula we have used and the formula used in the Miami Valley Burn Unit (transferrin=0.7 TIBC+24) recognized these constant, albeit different, relationships. As long as the TIBC-derived "transferrin" and the directly measured "transferrin" remain proportional, TIBC derivations of "transferrin" remain useful chemical tools.

We wish to thank Dr Miller and co-workers for clarifying this distinction. Although normal values for transferrin (whether directly measured or derived) may vary from hospital to hospital, the serum transferrin values, when measured before nutritional support and again after two weeks of total parenteral nutrition, appear to be predictive of the success of nutritional repletion. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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