Fig. 4: Analysis of iron parameters in children with different causes of AFI.
From: Iron homeostasis and cytokine responses in Gabonese children with febrile illness
Plasma concentrations of (a) ferritin, (b) transferrin, c ferritin: transferrin ratio, (d) TSAT, (e) hepcidin, and (f) sTfR) were determined in children with bacterial or non-bacterial infection (B/NB, red), Malaria without co-infections (Malaria, light blue), Malaria with bacterial or non-bacterial co-infections (Malaria + B/NB, green), and Undetermined cause of infection (Undetermined, dark blue). Black dots and lines indicate group median and group interquartile range, respectively. P values were determined using Kruskal–Wallis test followed by Mann–Whitney post hoc testing with Benjamini–Hochberg adjustment for multiple comparisons. Significance levels were defined as follows, ns: padj > 0.05; *: padj ≤ 0.05; **: padj ≤ 0.01; ***: padj ≤ 0.001; ****: padj ≤ 0.0001. Only statistically significant differences from the post-hoc analysis are shown. Scales in a–f are adjusted to accurately display datapoints up to the 95th percentile. Cohort-based reference ranges for ferritin (10.9–81.1 µg/L) and transferrin (2.23 to 3.56 g/L) were recently assessed in European children and were found to be sex and age-dependent.17 There are no established reference values currently available for the hepcidin and sTfR assays. Abbreviations: AFI acute febrile illness, B/NB bacterial/non-bacterial, TSAT transferrin saturation.
