What Causes Shortness Of Breath And Fatigue?

Posted on Tue, 4 Oct 2016

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 4 Oct 2016 Answered on

Mon, 24 Oct 2016 Last reviewed on

Question : I have been feeling shortness of breath and fatigue. I took a bunch of blood work and the iron tests are about the only ones that seem off.

Attached is my iron work up. prior to this test I had an elevated level of ferritin. 465.

what could this indicate?

Answered by Dr. Indranil Ghosh (2 hours later)

Brief Answer:
These reports can't explain the symptoms

Detailed Answer:
Hi
Thanks for your query.

The iron levels have dropped, and the hemoglobin has also dropped marginally by one point. Ferritin is normal now, which signifies normal iron stores in body. This can't explain the symptoms as the hemoglobin is still excellent.

We should look for some other causes like in lungs or cardiac. At the same time we should look into why the iron level has dropped. An occult blood test in the stools is possibly required.

Hope this helps.
Regards

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar