Serum iron status in beta-thalassemic patients with clinical signs of iron overload

A. Ahmed, Faris; M. Al-Rasheed, Suhair; A. Al-Kataan, Mohammad

	Serum iron status in beta-thalassemic patients with clinical signs of iron overload
Medical Journal of Tikrit
Article 1, Volume 1, Issue 151, 2012, Pages 9-12
Authors
Faris A. Ahmed; Suhair M. Al-Rasheed; Mohammad A. Al-Kataan
Abstract
Iron overload is the main complication of beta-thalassemia. This study was conducted to evaluate iron status in thalassemic patients with clinical signs of iron overload. The study was done in thalassemic centre at Ibn Al-Atheer Pediatric Teaching Hospital in Mosul, Iraq. Two groups of ten thalassemic patients for each group were included in this study. The first group included patients without clinical signs of iron overload their ages ranged between 4-13 years (mean ±SD: 7.3±3.7 years), while the second group included patients with clinical signs of iron overload, their ages ranged between 8-20 years (mean ± SD: 15.3±3.4 years). Serum iron, ferritin and percentage saturation of total iron binding capacity (TIBC) were significantly higher (P<0.001) in the thalassemic patients with clinical signs in comparison with the other group. However, serum transfirrin and TIBC were significantly lower (P<0.05) in the clinical signs patients compared with the other group. All values of serum iron status were within the normal range except the percentage saturation of TIBC in the clinical signs patients. The mean age of the clinical signs patients were significantly higher (P<0.001) than the mean age of the other group. In conclusion patients with thalassemia major in Iraq are poorly managed though iron chelator is used. Percentage saturation of TIBC is recommended to estimate iron overload
Keywords
Serum iron status in beta; thalassemic patients with clinical signs of iron overload; thalassemic

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