A Patient Information Guide
Your haematinic blood tests check for the essential building blocks your bone marrow needs to manufacture healthy red blood cells.
If any of these vitamins or minerals are low, your body cannot produce enough red blood cells, leading to a condition called anaemia.
Normal Range: 10–30 umol/L
Serum iron measures the exact amount of iron currently circulating in the liquid portion of your blood. This reflects the balance between the iron you absorb from your diet and the iron your body is actively using or storing.
While useful, your serum iron level fluctuates wildly throughout the day and is heavily influenced by your recent meals. Because of this variation, your medical team will never interpret your serum iron score on its own; they will always evaluate it alongside your ferritin and total iron-binding capacity.
Normal Range: 41–400 ug/L (Target for kidney disease: 200–500 ug/L)
Ferritin is a specialised protein that acts like an internal savings account for iron, storing it safely inside your body’s cells until it is needed. A ferritin level below 15 ug/L indicates completely empty iron reserves.
With haemoglobin, this is the most critical test for identifying iron deficiency. If your ferritin is low or borderline (under 100 ug/L), it means your body is running out of raw materials to build blood cells, and your doctor may recommend iron tablets or an iron infusion. However, because ferritin is also an inflammatory marker, it can sometimes look falsely high or normal during an active infection or illness.
Normal Range: 45–70 umol/L
TIBC measures the total capacity of your blood to bind and transport iron molecules. It essentially tells your doctor how many “empty seats” are available on transferrin, the protein proteins that carry iron through your bloodstream.
When your body’s iron stores are depleted, your liver tries to compensate by manufacturing more transport proteins, which drives your TIBC level up. Therefore, a high TIBC combined with a low ferritin level is a classic sign of true iron-deficiency anaemia.
Normal Range: 20–45%
Transferrin saturation is a percentage value calculated by dividing your serum iron by your total iron-binding capacity. It tells your clinical team exactly what percentage of your iron transport proteins are actively carrying iron.
A TSAT score below 20% indicates that your bone marrow is starving for iron, even if your ferritin test looks normal due to inflammation. In chronic conditions like kidney or heart disease, specialists look closely at TSAT to decide if you need intravenous iron therapy to support healthy blood production.
Normal Range: 130–700 pmol/L (180–900 pg/mL)
Vitamin B12 is a vital water-soluble vitamin that your body requires to synthesize DNA and construct healthy red blood cells. A lack of B12 causes your bone marrow to produce abnormally large, fragile red blood cells that cannot function properly.
A low B12 level can be caused by dietary choices (such as a strict vegan diet without supplementation) or by an autoimmune condition called pernicious anaemia, where your stomach cannot absorb the vitamin from food. Because B12 is also essential for nerve health, a deficiency can cause numbness, tingling, or balance issues if left untreated.
Normal Range: 7–45 nmol/L
Folate works hand-in-hand with Vitamin B12 to assist your bone marrow with healthy blood cell production. Like B12, a deficiency in folate leads to macrocytic anaemia, where your red blood cells grow abnormally large and inefficient.
Because your body cannot store large amounts of folate, your levels depend heavily on regular dietary intake of green leafy vegetables and fortified foods. Alcohol consumption, poor diet, and certain medications can cause your folate levels to drop quickly, requiring a short course of folic acid tablets to fix.
Normal Range: 0.5–2.0% of total red blood cells (50–100 x10^9/L)
Reticulocytes are immature, newly formed red blood cells that have just been released into your circulation from the bone marrow. They act like a real-time report card of your bone marrow’s current productivity.
If you have anaemia and your reticulocyte count is high, it means your bone marrow is working overtime to replace lost or destroyed blood cells. If you have anaemia and your reticulocyte count is very low, it indicates that your bone marrow is struggling to produce new cells, likely due to a lack of raw materials like iron or B12.
Normal Range: 1.6–4.2 mg/L
When your body’s cells are desperate for iron, they sprout tiny receptors on their surfaces to try and catch any passing iron molecules. As iron deficiency worsens, these receptors break off into the blood, causing sTfR levels to rise.
This test is highly specific and is used by specialists to solve complex diagnostic puzzles. Because sTfR is completely unaffected by inflammation, it allows your doctor to tell the difference between iron-deficiency anaemia and the anaemia caused by a chronic, long-term illness.
Normal Range: 130–180 g/L for men; 110–150 g/L for women
While the haematinic panel measures your vitamin and mineral building blocks, your doctor will always view them alongside your Full Blood Count (FBC), focusing primarily on your Haemoglobin (Hb) level.
Why Haemoglobin Matters: Haemoglobin is the iron-rich protein inside your red blood cells that picks up oxygen in your lungs and carries it to the rest of your body. A low haemoglobin level means you have anaemia, which directly causes symptoms like fatigue, feeling constantly cold, shortness of breath, and poor concentration. Treating a low ferritin or B12 level is done to drive this haemoglobin number back up into a healthy range.
Your blood tracking schedule is determined by the severity of your symptoms and whether you are currently correcting a known deficiency:
| Clinical Situation | Recommended Testing Schedule |
| Investigating Unexplained Fatigue or Low Hb | Once as an initial diagnostic panel |
| Starting Iron Tablets or B12 Injections | Every 2 to 4 months to monitor your response |
| Chronic Kidney Disease (Stage 3–5) | Every 3 to 6 months to guide EPO and iron therapy |
| History of Malabsorption (e.g. Coeliac Disease) |
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