Serum ferritin levels were determined in a group of 148 subjects drawn from a community study who were found to be at high risk of atherosclerosis (evaluated on the basis of the following data: levels of non-HDL cholesterol, arterial pressure, smoking status, cardiovascular or cerebrovascular disease in a subject's history, diabetes mellitus, a positive family predisposition to, or accumulation of the above factors) and compared with the levels obtained in a control group of 148 examined age- and sex-matched subjects from the same community with non-significant risk factors. Mean serum ferritin levels were higher in the whole risk group and in the subgroups of risk men and postmenopausal women than in the corresponding controls (the whole risk group: 263.4 +/- 218.5 micrograms/l vs. 198.3 +/- 179.5 micrograms/l, p < 0.05; the subgroup of men 361.8 +/- 235.7 micrograms/l vs. 286.4 +/- 194.6 micrograms/l, p < 0.05 and the subgroup of postmenopausal women 184.1 +/- 143.1 vs. 126.7 +/- 108.4 micrograms/l, p < 0.05).