Magnetic resonance imaging in the evaluation of iron overload in patients with beta thalassaemia and sickle cell disease
- 30 July 2004
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in British Journal of Haematology
- Vol. 126 (5), 736-742
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2141.2004.05104.x
Abstract
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) appears to be useful for monitoring iron overload in thalassaemia. We studied 106 patients with beta-thalassaemia: 80 with thalassaemia major (TM) and 26 with thalassaemia intermedia (TI). Thirty-five patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) were also evaluated. Serum ferritin, liver and myocardial T2-relaxation time and liver iron concentration (LIC) were measured. LIC values, based on biopsies from 29 patients, showed a close inverse correlation with the respective liver T2-values, along with a strong positive correlation with ferritin levels in all patients. Heart T2-values correlated with left ventricular ejection fraction in TM and SCD, but not in TI patients. Both liver and heart T2-values were significantly lower in TM patients than those of TI, and SCD patients. Ferritin levels showed a strong correlation with liver T2-values in all three groups of patients. Similarly, a negative correlation was found between serum ferritin levels and heart T2-values in TM, but not in TI and SCD patients. Heart and liver T2-values showed a significant correlation only in TM patients. These results suggest that the MRI technique (T2 relaxation time) used in our study, is a reliable, safe and non-invasive method for the assessment of the deposition of iron in the liver; results for the heart become reliable only when there is heavy iron deposition.Keywords
This publication has 27 references indexed in Scilit:
- Monitoring chelation therapy to achieve optimal outcome in the treatment of thalassaemiaBest Practice & Research Clinical Haematology, 2002
- Survival and Disease Complications in Thalassemia MajorAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1998
- Variability in hepatic iron concentration measurement from needle-biopsy specimensJournal of Hepatology, 1996
- Efficacy of Deferoxamine in Preventing Complications of Iron Overload in Patients with Thalassemia MajorThe New England Journal of Medicine, 1994
- Non‐invasive assessment of tissue iron overload in the liver by magnetic resonance imagingBritish Journal of Haematology, 1994
- Non‐invasive quantitation of liver iron‐overload by magnetic resonance imagingBritish Journal of Haematology, 1990
- RLSQ: T1, T2, and ρ calculations, combining ratios and least squaresMagnetic Resonance in Medicine, 1987
- Serum ferritin concentration in sickle cell crisis.Journal of Clinical Pathology, 1986
- Magnetic-Susceptibility Measurement of Human Iron StoresThe New England Journal of Medicine, 1982
- Iron in the heart: Etiology and clinical significanceAmerican Journal Of Medicine, 1971