Background: Long-term red blood cell transfusion therapy results in iron overload. Consensus documents have been developed for several transfusion-dependent groups of patients to provide clinicians with guidance on the monitoring and treatment of this transfusion complication. The objective of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics and current standard of care for patients with transfusion dependency in Spain.
Material and methods: This observational, multicentre study was conducted from November 2008 to December 2009 in 41 Spanish hospitals and day-care centres. Patients who received their first transfusion after January 2007, and who had received at least 10 units of packed red blood cells at the time of inclusion were eligible for the study.
Results: We collected data from 631 patients with a mean age of 65±17 years. Haematological disease (84% of patients) was the most frequent underlying disorder. Patients had received a mean of 30±26 red blood cell units from diagnosis until inclusion in the study, and a mean of 18±18 red blood cell units in the previous year. Ferritin levels were available before and after starting the study for 116 (18%) and 412 (65%) patients, respectively. Mean ferritin level at study inclusion was 1,570 ng/mL, and 58% of patients had a ferritin level of at least 1,000 ng/mL. In spite of this, only 89 (14%) patients were receiving chelation therapy.
Discussion: The management of patients with transfusion dependency could be improved by using ferritin levels to diagnose iron overload and guide the timely start of chelation therapy.