Magnetic resonance imaging assessment of cardiac and liver iron load in transfusion dependent patients.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is an emerging tool to assess organ-specific iron load in patients with transfusion dependent anemia. OBJECTIVE: We performed MRI T2 star (T2*) assessment in 44 transfusion dependent patients to study the prevalence of cardiac and liver iron overload and the relationship of T2* measurement with various clinical and biochemical parameters. RESULT: Mean age of the study subjects was 19.9 years (range 8.8-32.3) and the mean cardiac T2* was 23.4 +/- 13.8 msec. Fifty percent of the subjects had abnormal cardiac T2* (below 20 msec). Cardiac T2* was not found to have any correlation with serum ferritin or liver T2*. Liver T2* value was abnormal in 79% of the subjects and it correlated inversely with both current and 12 months average serum ferritin (r = -0.44, P = 0.003; r = -0.46, P = 0.002). Clinical parameters including age, duration of transfusion, age starting iron chelation therapy, and ratio between transfusion volume and desferrioxamine dosage were not correlated with cardiac and liver T2*. CONCLUSION: We conclude that iron overload in heart and liver is common in our transfusion dependent patients. Liver T2* has inverse correlation with serum ferritin. Cardiac T2* does not have any correlation with the various clinical and biochemical parameters.

Author information

Author/s: Leung, Alex Wing Kwan (AW); Chu, Winnie Chiu Wing (WC); Lam, Wynnie Wai Man (WW); Lee, Vincent (V); Li, Chi Kong (CK);

Affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong SAR. b108022(-atsign-)mailserv.cuhk.edu.hk

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Pediatric blood & cancer (Pediatr Blood Cancer), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Dec; vol 53 (issue 6) : pp 1054-9

Dates: Created 2009/09/16; Completed 2009/10/13;

PMID: 19618454, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/13/2009, IMS Date: )

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