Comparison of combined chelation therapy effects (deferoxamine-deferiprone, deferoxamine-deferasirox) with Deferoxamine and Deferasirox in beta-thalassemia major in Yasuj

Chelation therapy is essential for beta-thalassemia major. This study aims to determine the complications clinical and laboratory symptoms of monotherapy and combined treatment of iron chelators in beta-thalassemia major patients in Yasuj.

In this cross-sectional-descriptive-analytical study, 103 patients with beta-thalassemia major in Yasuj city were evaluated during 2021-2022. After collecting the demographic, clinical and laboratory information of the patients, the results were reported as mean ± standard deviation and percentage. The degree of statistical differences between ratios was calculated using the Kruskal-Wallis test.

The average age of our patients was reported to be 24.74 ± 8.34 years. 54.4% (n = 56) of the study patients were men and 45.6% (n = 47) were women. The results of the present study showed that there was a statistically significant difference in mean ferritin among different study groups (p = 0.028). Patients treated with deferoxamine showed the highest mean serum ferritin (5925.5 ± 3397ng%) and patients who took deferoxamine together with deferiprone or deferasirox had a lower mean ferritin compared to deferoxamine alone  (3348 ± 2560, 4269 ± 3322 ng%), respectively. Also, the present study showed that after taking iron removers, 47.6% of patients (n = 49) had no clinical complications and 52.4% (n = 54) had at least one complication.

Conclusions  :

Our results showed that Deferoxamine can have a great effect in reducing iron deposition and serum ferritin levels in combination with oral drugs.