Iron overload status in patients with non-transfusion-dependent thalassemia in China

Yumei Huang; Gaohui Yang; Man Wang; Xiaoyun Wei; Lingyuan Pan; Jiaodi Liu; Yu Lei; Peng; Liling Long; Yongrong Lai; Rongrong Liu

doi:10.1177/20406207221084639

Iron overload status in patients with non-transfusion-dependent thalassemia in China

Ther Adv Hematol. 2022 Mar 18:13:20406207221084639. doi: 10.1177/20406207221084639. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Yumei Huang¹, Gaohui Yang¹, Man Wang¹, Xiaoyun Wei¹, Lingyuan Pan¹, Jiaodi Liu¹, Yu Lei¹, Peng², Liling Long², Yongrong Lai³, Rongrong Liu³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
² Department of Radiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China.
³ Department of Hematology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning 530021, Guangxi, China.

Abstract

Background: Iron overload is one of the main factors that increase morbidity and mortality in patients with non-transfusion dependent thalassemia (NTDT).

Aim: This study aimed at investigating the prevalence and severity of iron overload in Chinese NTDT patients.

Methods: we analyzed serum ferritin (SF), liver iron concentration (LIC) and cardiac T2* in 178 Chinese NTDT in this cross-sectional study.

Results: The median SF level was 996.00(27.15-19704.00) ng/ml and the median LIC value was 8.90(0.60-43.00) mg Fe/g dry weight (dw). The youngest patient with liver iron overload was 5 years old with 5.6 mg Fe/g dw in LIC. The median cardiac T2* was 33.06(7.46-75.08) ms. 6 patients had cardiac T2*⩽20ms. The patients with β thalassemia intermedia and HbE/β thalassemia showed a statistically significant lower Hb and higher values of SF and LIC than those of hemoglobin H disease patients. On multivariate logistic regression analysis, patients in ⩾ age 30-year old had a significant higher risk for iron overload (OR: 77.75, 95% CI: 8.76-690.49) in the age group. The detailed analysis of proportions of different LIC indicate in > 30-year old group, 76.8% patients suffered from moderate and severe LIC.

Conclusion: Our study provides a strong support for the novel findings that Chinese NTDT patients have a high prevalence of iron overload. The first assessment of MRI LIC should be performed as early as 5 years old. Then, NTDT patients > 30 years old may suffer with a high burden of iron overload.

Keywords: Chinese thalassemic patients; iron overload; non-transfusion-dependent thalassemia.