Anyone know what can cause high levels of ferritin?

[Myworldjusthim]

Can sepsis or covid cause very high levels of ferritin levels? Anyone have any idea?
Long story short: DC had covid and then a bacterial chest infection. His ferritin levels were very high. Could that be the cause?

Anyone? Ever had very high ferritin levels

It can be an acute phase reactant, so yes, an infection commonly pushes ferritin levels up. But he needs advice from his own doctor, the person who has seen him and who has his blood results.

I have high ferritin, so does my mum. She is a carrier for haemachromatosis, I'm not. No ill effects for either of us. You need to talk to your son's gp to see what's going on with him.

Son is currently being treated for suspected sepsis. But because he didn’t respond straight away to the IV antibiotics they then thought it must be an inflammatory response as his ferritin levels were very high. Then he started to respond to the iv antibiotics about 48 hours later and they are now saying could be sepsis/bacterial infection vs hyperinflamation due to an autoimmune disease. They are now deciding next steps. They are clueless really until they get the cultures back. My question is can covid 19 coupled with bacterial chest infection cause a very high ferritin level. can sepsis?

Bump

I can't help with your specific question (sorry) but my DC had high ferritin which was not picked up or tested for as being haemachromatosis because the paedatrician said it was unlikely to occur in a young child. This has caused organ damage and life long reliance on medication. Please ask for this to be checked, it's very easy to treat if it is that.

Yes, sepsis and other inflammatory conditions (any acute significant illness really) can cause a high ferritin. It's not specific to one illness. There is no need to consider haemochromatosis at this point (from limited info you have given) - it is a case of rechecking the ferritin to see if it normalises after the acute illness. (Haemochromatosis could then be considered and tested for if it does not).

Really though, your son is still an inpatient and you can just ask the team caring for him on the ward round? High ferritin in the short term is not harmful or something to worry about. I hope your son's recovery continues.

I don't know if this will help but I just wanted to mention it. My daughters ferritin level went very high (over 1000) and her rheumatologist told me to tell the doctors to look for

macrophage activation syndrome

I haven't looked in to this as it turned out she has a reason for the high ferritin and was well in herself.

I hope he is better soon xx

There's a really simple test for haemochromatosis, it's genetic so no reason to wait for illness to ease up, better to rule it out asap.

Treatment for haemochromatosis will not be commenced during an acute illness. There is nothing to be gained by obtaining an urgent diagnosis.

The genetic test has to be sent to a genetics reference laboratory. Unnecessary genetics investigations cause the patient to need more stabs, increase delays / waiting times for necessary genetics investigations and waste money. Whilst there is one gene implicated in the majority of cases, it's not 100%. Genetics results have to be interpreted in conjunction with lab results including FBC, ferritin, liver studies, transferrin saturation - these tests are not interpretable during an acute illness. A misdiagnosis (false positive or false negative) is not going to benefit anyone.

There are good reasons to wait until the acute illness has passed and then to repeat a ferritin. Haemochromatosis cannot be ruled out during an acute illness.

What number are the ferritin levels? There is a wide acceptable range.

The very top range. Extremely high I was told.

Had an update from hospital. They think it’s post covid inflammation or Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome (PIMS).
not looking good at all 😓