Evaluation of the correlation between MRI (T2), ferritin, and echocardiography in diagnosis of cardiac complications due to blood transfusion in patients with thalassemia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation between the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI T2) findings, ferritin serum levels and echocardiography parameters in the diagnosis of cardiac complications due to transfusion in patients with B-thalassemia. Methods and materials: In a cross-sectional study, all transfusion dependent B-thalassemia patients aged over 15 years old were enrolled to the study. For evaluation of ferritin serum levels, blood samples were collected from patients. Echocardiography was used to evaluate left ventricular systolic function, right ventricular diastolic function and pulmonary artery pressure, and MRI T2 was used to determine the iron load. Results: A total of 58 patients with mean age of 5.33 ± 22.9 years were studied. Serum ferritin levels were between 10720-252 ug/L with mean and standard deviation of 2780.68 ± 4080.05 ug / L. 54.3% of patients had heart failure. There was an indirect moderate significant correlation between cardiac iron overload in MRI T2 and ferritin levels (P=0.002). There was no significant correlation between the echocardiographic parameters and serum ferritin levels. Also there was a significant correlation between cardiac iron overload and pulmonary arterial pressure.