Relationship of iron status to urinary norepinephrine excretion in children 7-12 years of age.

In a group of 7- to 12-year-old children without manifest clinical iron deficiency, urinary excretion of free norepinephrine was found to have substantial positive correlation with measure of total iron-binding capacity and negative correlation with serum ferritin. Results support earlier reports of an inverse contingency between iron status and urinary norepinephrine level as observed with severe iron lack, findings consistent with speculation that monoamine oxidase activity may be modified by iron availability.