Table 2. Performance of biochemical iron markers to identify children with deficiency of bone marrow iron stores or insufficient erythroblast iron incorporation.

	Bone marrow iron deficiency								Insufficient erythroblast iron incorporation
Iron marker	AUCROC	p value	Sensitivity (%)	95% CI		Specificity (%)	95% CI		AUCROC	p value	Sensitivity (%)	95% CI		Specificity (%)	95% CI
Hepcidin (nmol/L)	0.598	0.07	66.7	50,5	80,4	49.5	39,2	59,8	0.591	0.1	54.2	39,2	68,6	61.8	49,2	73,3
Ferritin (ug/l)	0.855	<00001	41.7	22,2	63,3	98.1	87,7	99,7	0.524	0.8	48.0	28,7	68,0	54.1	36,9	70,5
sTfR (ug/ml)	0.823	<00001	92.5	79,6	98,4	35.5	25,8	46,1	0.634	0.02	58.7	43,2	73,0	57.6	44,8	69,7
sTfR-F index	0.815	<00001	75.0	53,3	90,2	73.5	58,9	85,0	0.577	0.3	96.2	80,3	99,4	13.9	4,7	29,5
MCHC (g/dl)	0.727	<00001	61.5	46,5	80,2	68.4	57,9	78,9	0.447	0.4	45.0	29,3	61,5	50.9	37,1	64,6
MCV (fl)	0.489	0.9	22.9	10,5	40,1	90.1	81,5	95,6	0.676	0.003	70.0	53,5	83,4	58.9	45,0	71,9

Deficiency of bone marrow iron stores was defined as a bone marrow iron score of 0 or 1; CRP: C-Reactive Protein; HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus; MCHC: mean cell hemoglobin concentration; MCV mean corpuscular volume; sTfR: soluble transferrin receptor; sTfR-F index: sTfR-log ferritin index. Insufficient erythroblast iron incorporation: defined as <30% iron deficient erythroblasts. AUC area under the curve; ROC: receiver operating characteristics.