The authors examined, using the enzyme immunometric method, the serum ferritin concentration in 144 patients aged 60 to 93 years and in 26 healthy volunteers aged 22 to 30 years. They divided the group into four sub-groups: A control group of old people, B control group of young people, C patients with malignities and D patients with various diseases affecting the serum ferritin level. The authors confirmed the significant difference in the serum ferritin concentration between the two control groups (higher concentration in old people). A significant difference in the ferritinaemia in relation to sex (lower in females) was found only in the group of young people. In malignities the serum ferritin level is higher than in the control group, however, on account of the great scatter of values serum ferritin is not a suitable marker of neoplastic growth. Values lower than 30 ng/ml can be conciderend an unequivocal sign of sideropenia; values considered normal in the middle-aged population do not rule out sideropenia in advanced age.

Keywords: Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Female; Ferritins /blood/; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Neoplasms /blood/