A summary of study blood analytes and methods
| Analyte | Methods |
| Plasma folate | Microtiter technique with chloramphenicol-resistant Lactobacillus casei as the test micro-organism25 |
| Erythrocyte folate | Calculated from whole blood folate by subtracting plasma folate and correcting for haematocrit |
| Plasma vitamin B12 | Elecsys 2010 (Roche Diagnostics, Switzerland) automated electrochemiluminescence immunoassay |
| Plasma ferritin, sTfR, AGP, CRP and RBP | Single sandwich-enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (s-ELISA)26 |
AGP, α−1 acid glycoprotein; CRP, C-reactive protein; RBP, retinol binding protein; sTfR, soluble transferrin receptor.