The Correlation between the Cardiac and Hepatic Iron-Overload in Patients with Thalassemia Major Who Received Multiple Transfusion

The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between the cardiac and hepatic iron-overload as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging t2 star (MRIT2-star) technique and serum ferritin level in patients with thalassemia major. In this cross-sectional study we evaluated 170 patients in Sayed Shohada Hospital in Isfahan in the year of 2009, cardiac and hepatic iron-overloaded values were calculated in patients using magnetic resonance imaging t2 star techniques. Serum ferritin level and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were determined for all patients. We studied 170 beta-thalassemic patients, 90 (52.9%) females and 80 (47.1%) males, mean age 20.6 ± 6.2 years. Mean cardiac iron-overloaded was 22.7 ± 14.7, mean hepatic iron-overloaded was 3.2 ± 2.4, mean serum ferritin level was 2310 ± 1554 and mean left ventricular ejection fraction was 60.5% ± 7.7 percent. Pearson’s tests gave a significant correlation coefficient between cardiac iron-overloaded and hepatic iron-overloaded (r = 0.29, P < 0.001). There were weak inversely associated between serum ferritin level with hepatic iron (r = -0.32, P < 0.001) and cardiac iron (r = -0.21, P = 0.006). Myocardial iron deposition can be reproducibly quantified using myocardial and this is the most significant variable for predicting the need for ventricular dysfunction treatment. The finding of this study demonstrated a significant correlation between cardiac and hepatic iron-overloaded level in patients with thalassemia major.