CRP and nutritional disorder: When patients were grouped by protocol-defined pre-infusion ferritin and CRP cut-off values into those who were truly iron deficient (ferritin < 30 μg/L and CRP ≤ 5 mg/L, n = 18), those with probable FID (ferritin < 30 μg/L and CRP > 5 mg/L, n = 17), those with probable anaemia of inflammation (ferritin ≥ 30 μg/L and CRP > 5 mg/L, n = 6), and those who were given parenteral iron despite no evidence of iron deficiency (ferritin ≥ 30 μg/L and CRP ≤ 5 mg/L, n = 6), there was no association between this pre-infusion iron status and sex, age, comorbidity, or disease stage (Table 2).