Distinguishing the anemia of chronic disease from iron deficiency anemia in patients with chronic inflammatory disease may be problematic. It was found that soluble and cellular TfR levels were significantly higher in iron deficiency, rheumatoid arthritis with low Hb and rheumatoid arthritis with normal Hb patients than normal subject with no statistically significant difference between the patient groups. However, rheumatoid patients with low hemoglobin showed higher values of soluble and cellular TfR than those with normal hemoglobin, although not statistically significant. There was a significant negative correlation between sTfR and both MCV and serum iron in iron deficiency anemia, and between sTfR and serum iron in rheumatoid arthritis. The determination of TfR level may be useful in prediction of iron deficiency in cases of multifactorial anemia such as that of rheumatoid arthritis.