From the Guidelines
To order an iron panel, contact your healthcare provider to request the blood test, which typically includes serum iron, total iron binding capacity (TIBC), and serum ferritin, as recommended by the study published in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network 1. When ordering an iron panel, it is essential to follow the proper procedure to ensure accurate results.
- First, schedule an appointment with your primary care physician or specialist who can evaluate your symptoms and determine if the test is necessary.
- They will provide you with a laboratory requisition form, which you should take to a laboratory facility where a phlebotomist will draw your blood.
- You may need to fast for 8-12 hours before the test for accurate results, though this depends on your doctor's instructions, as noted in the context of iron studies 1.
- Most insurance plans cover iron panels when medically necessary, but verify coverage beforehand.
- Results are usually available within a few days and will be sent to your ordering physician who can interpret them for you. The iron panel is an important diagnostic tool for detecting conditions like iron deficiency anemia, hemochromatosis, or chronic inflammation that affects iron metabolism, with recent guidelines suggesting a ferritin cut-off of 45 ng/mL for diagnosing iron deficiency 1. In terms of the components of the iron panel, the most recent and highest quality study recommends including serum iron, TIBC, and serum ferritin 1. It is also important to note that iron panels can help identify patients who may require iron supplementation, particularly those with functional iron deficiency, as discussed in the study on cancer- and chemotherapy-induced anemia 1.
From the Research
Ordering an Iron Panel
There are no research papers to assist in answering this question, as the provided studies do not discuss iron panels or their ordering process.