Hyperferritinemia Drives Risk: Unravelling the Association Between Ferritin Levels and Multi-Organ Dysfunction in Acute Febrile Illness: An Emergency Medicine Perspective

Neeraj Singla; Neha Sharma; Nalin Sharma; Mandip Bhatia; Navneet Sharma

doi:10.7759/cureus.99737

journal article Dec 20, 2025

Hyperferritinemia Drives Risk: Unravelling the Association Between Ferritin Levels and Multi-Organ Dysfunction in Acute Febrile Illness: An Emergency Medicine Perspective

Neeraj Singla Neha Sharma

Nalin Sharma Mandip Bhatia Navneet Sharma

Cureus · Springer Science and Business Media LLC

View at Publisher Save 10.7759/cureus.99737

Topics

No keywords indexed for this article. Browse by subject →

References

18

[1]

Murdoch R, Woods W, Zimmerman D, et al.. The etiology of febrile illness in adults presenting to Patan hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2004, 70:670-5. 10.4269/ajtmh.2004.70.670

[2]

Chrispal A, Boorugu H, Gopinath KG, et al.. Scrub typhus: an unrecognized threat in South India - clinical profile and predictors of mortality. Trop Doct. 2010, 40:129-33. 10.1258/td.2010.090452 10.1258/td.2010.090452

[3]

Kernan KF, Carcillo JA. Hyperferritinemia and inflammation. Int Immunol. 2017, 29:401-9. 10.1093/intimm/dxx031 10.1093/intimm/dxx031

[4]

Rosário C, Zandman-Goddard G, Meyron-Holtz EG, et al.. The hyperferritinemic syndrome: macrophage activation syndrome, Still's disease, septic shock and catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome. BMC Med. 2013, 11:185. 10.1186/1741-7015-11-185 10.1186/1741-7015-11-185

[5]

Soundravally R, Agieshkumar B, Daisy M, et al.. Ferritin levels predict severe dengue. Infection. 2015, 43:13-9. 10.1007/s15010-014-0683-4 10.1007/s15010-014-0683-4

[6]

Varghese GM, Trowbridge P, Janardhanan J, et al.. Clinical profile and improving mortality trend of scrub typhus in South India. Int J Infect Dis. 2014, 23:39-43. 10.1016/j.ijid.2014.02.009 10.1016/j.ijid.2014.02.009

[7]

Munasinghe BM, Arambepola AG, Pathirage N, et al.. Haemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis with leptospirosis: a rare but devastating complication. Case Rep Infect Dis. 2021, 2021:3451155. 10.1155/2021/3451155 10.1155/2021/3451155

[8]

Karakike E, Giamarellos-Bourboulis EJ. Macrophage activation-like syndrome: a distinct entity leading to early death in sepsis. Front Immunol. 2019, 10:55. 10.3389/fimmu.2019.00055 10.3389/fimmu.2019.00055

[9]

Vincent JL, Jones G, David S, et al.. Frequency and mortality of septic shock in Europe and North America: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Crit Care. 2019, 23:196. 10.1186/s13054-019-2478-6 10.1186/s13054-019-2478-6

[10]

Uzair H, Waseem R, Kumar N, et al.. Fatal outcome of dengue fever with multi-organ failure and hemorrhage: a case report. SAGE Open Med Case Rep. 2023, 11:2050313X231220808. 10.1177/2050313X231220808 10.1177/2050313x231220808

[11]

Singer M, Deutschman CS, Seymour CW, et al.. The third International Consensus Definitions for Sepsis and Septic Shock (sepsis-3). JAMA. 2016, 315:801-10. 10.1001/jama.2016.0287 10.1001/jama.2016.0287

[12]

Kellum JA, Sileanu FE, Bihorac A, et al.. Recovery after acute kidney injury. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2017, 195:784-91. 10.1164/rccm.201604-0799OC 10.1164/rccm.201604-0799oc

[13]

La Rosée P, Horne A, Hines M, et al.. Recommendations for the management of hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis in adults. Blood. 2019, 133:2465-77. 10.1182/blood.2018894618 10.1182/blood.2018894618

[14]

Mehta P, McAuley DF, Brown M, et al.. COVID-19: consider cytokine storm syndromes and immunosuppression. Lancet. 2020, 395:1033-4. 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30628-0 10.1016/s0140-6736(20)30628-0

[15]

Ferreira FL, Bota DP, Bross A, et al.. Serial evaluation of the SOFA score to predict outcome in critically ill patients. JAMA. 2001, 286:1754-8. 10.1001/jama.286.14.1754 10.1001/jama.286.14.1754

[16]

Levi M, van der Poll T. Coagulation in sepsis: all bugs bite equally. Crit Care. 2004, 8:99-100. 10.1186/cc2816 10.1186/cc2816

[17]

Suresh SC, Hanumanthaiah R, Ramakrishna C, et al.. Serum ferritin as a prognostic indicator in adult dengue patients. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2020, 104:1072-8. 10.4269/ajtmh.20-1111 10.4269/ajtmh.20-1111

[18]

Kurian SJ, Mathews SP, Paul A, et al.. Association of serum ferritin with severity and clinical outcome in COVID-19 patients: An observational study in a tertiary healthcare facility. Clin Epidemiol Glob Health. 2023, 21:101295. 10.1016/j.cegh.2023.101295 10.1016/j.cegh.2023.101295

Metrics

0

Citations

18

References

Details

Published: Dec 20, 2025

Authors

From the Departments of Infectious Diseases (G.M.V., D.D., D.K., R.G.N., A.H.P., A. Manesh), Medicine (K.G., N.N., A.Z., R.I., S.G.H., S.S., T.D.S., O.C.A.), Pharmacology (B.W.A., B.S.M., A. Mathew), Emergency Medicine (K.P.P.A.), Microbiology (J.A.J.P.), and Critical Care (J.V.P.), Christian Medical College, Vellore, the Department of Medicine, Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry (M.W.), the Departments of Internal Medicine (N.S.) and Microbiology (M.B.), Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, the Department of Pulmonary Care and Critical Medicine, Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak (D.C.), the Department of Medicine, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla (S.K.M.), the Department of Infectious Diseases, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal (K.S.), and the Department of Medicine, Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences, Tirupati (A. Moh...

Cite This Article

Neeraj Singla, Neha Sharma, Nalin Sharma, et al. (2025). Hyperferritinemia Drives Risk: Unravelling the Association Between Ferritin Levels and Multi-Organ Dysfunction in Acute Febrile Illness: An Emergency Medicine Perspective. Cureus. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.99737

Hyperferritinemia Drives Risk: Unravelling the Association Between Ferritin Levels and Multi-Organ Dysfunction in Acute Febrile Illness: An Emergency Medicine Perspective

You May Also Like