Table 1.

Clinical characteristics and iron metabolism phenotype in patients and controls

Variable	ALD (N = 24)	Controls (N = 30)	P-value
Age (years)	57.38 ± 1.57	57.40 ± 2.85	0.4431
Gender	17M/7F	18M/12F	0.5673
Serum iron (μmol/l)	18.03 ± 1.94	17.55 ± 0.67	0.6240
Serum ferritin (μg/l)	296.22 ± 96.11	151.0 ± 13.83	0.9640
Transferrin saturation (%)	32.22 ± 4.88	31.22 ± 0.96	0.4455
Hb (g/dl)	12.66 ± 0.44	14.00 ± 0.31	0.0138
Ht (%)	37.16 ± 1.16	41.48 ± 0.93	0.0058
ALT (μkat/l)	0.62 ± 0.05	0.54 ± 0.05	0.0478
AST (μkat/l)	0.81 ± 0.09	0.47 ± 0.03	0.0003

Data are presented as arithmetic mean ± SEM. Hb: haemoglobin; Ht: haematocrit; ALT: alanine aminotransferase; AST: aspartate aminotransferase. Normal ranges: serum iron (11–26 μmol/l), serum ferritin (male 30–250 μg/l, female 30–200 μg/l), transferrin saturation 20–45%, Hb (male 13.0–18.0 g/dl, female 11.5–16.0 g/dl), Ht (male 38–54%, female 35–47%), ALT (0.1–0.75 μkat/l) and AST (0.1–0.75 μkat/l).