Assessment of cardiac and hepatic iron overload in thalassaemic patients by magnetic resonance: a four year observational study.

Abstract

In this study, we present results of the determination of cardiac and hepatic iron overload in patients with thalassaemia by means of a non-invasive method based on magnetic resonance. The procedure was applied for a period of four years to a group of patients followed in the Thalassemia Centre of our hospital. The gathered data were stratified to indicate groups of patients with mild, moderate and severe hepatic iron overload. We also studied cardiac iron overload and related it to the ejection fraction. In addition, we addressed the issue of replacement of the resonance equipment with a change in the intensity of the magnetic field from 1 to 1.5 T. The calibration on the new equipment was carried out using a set of MnCl2 standard solutions. The results demonstrated the possibility of using the algorithms reported in the literature and thus the "portability" of the procedure on equipment of the same type. The study has confirmed the usefulness of this non-invasive procedure for the monitoring of the iron load in patients with thalassaemia and the possibility of its use on resonance installations in clinical use.