296 Pak J Med Sci 2008 Vol. 24 No. 2 www.pjms.com.pk Original Article THE COMPARISON OF SERUM FERRITIN CONCENTRATION BETWEEN HEALTHY PEOPLE WITH AND WITHOUT HISTORY OF FAMILY DIABETES Zinat Salem 1 , Reza Vazirinej ad 2 , Nazanin Zia Shiekholeslami 3 , Zahra Hashemi 4 , Mahnaz Tashakiry 5 ABSTRACT Objectives: This study aims to compare serum ferritin of the first degree relatives of diabetic patients with the control group. Methodology: This is a case cont rol st udy. Thirt y five adult s in each group of case and cont rol group were chosen by random technique. For each individual a questionnaire was completed and serum ferritin and fasting blood sugar concentration of the subjects were measured. Parametric and non parametric tests were used for comparing groups were appropriate. Result s: About 74.2%of subj ects were female and 25.8%were males in each group. Mean frittin concentration in case group was higher than this mean among respondents in control group (63± 58.73ng/ dl versus 58.07± 54.57ng/ dl). The fasting blood sugar concentration in the case group was also higher than the control group (100.6± 37.38mg/ dl versus 95.9± 17.02mg/ dl). However these differences were not significant between the two groups. There was a significant correlation between the ferritin concentration and fasting sugar in case group. Conclusion: Although there wasn’t a significant difference in mean ferritin concentration between the two groups, the higher ferritin concentration among respondents in the case group comparing to it’s concentration among respondents in control group is very important. More investigation of this type recruiting larger groups as case and control is suggested. KEY WORDS: Diabetic Patients, Relatives, Serum Ferritin. Pak J Med Sci April - June 2008 (Part-I) Vol. 24 No. 2 296-299 1. Zinat Salem, MS. Istructor, Social Medicine Department, 2. Dr. Reza Vazirinejad, Ph.D Assistant Professor, Social Medicine Department, 3. Dr. Nazanin Zia Shiekholeslami Specialist of Infection Disease, 4. Zahra Hashemi, MS. 5. Dr. Mahnaz Tashakiry, Ph.D 1-5: Medical School, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanj an – Iran. Correspondence Zinat salem E-mail: Zinatsalem@yahoo.com * Received for Publication: August 11, 2007 * Revision Received: August 17, 2007 * 2 nd Revision Received: September 25, 2007 * Final Revision Accepted: January 17, 2008 INTRODUCTION In the recent years it has been reported that iron overload can result in damage to liver, heart, endocrine organs and skeletal muscles system. The storage of Iron in pancreas has been known to cause secondary diabetes. 1 Re- cent experimental and epidemiologic studies have also shown a clear biologic association between iron metabolism and diabetes. 2 This association is more concerned with serum fer- ritin. Ferritin concentration is related to body iron stores and is influenced by several dis- eases. 3 Iron storage could also increase the re- sistance to insulin and lead to the development of type II diabetes. 4 The prevalence of glucose intolerance is also reported to be twice of type II diabetes. Studies have indicated that long term glucose intolerance might lead to hyper insulinaemia and hyper glycaemia and they will cause side effects such as obesity, hyper- tension, hyper lipidemia and arthrosclerosis. 5 Although glucose intolerance might be a short term phenomenon, but the development of dia- betes in these patients is not unusual. Glucose