Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Radio-diagnosis

Patients with B-thalassemia major (BTM) demonstrates an increased incidence of cardiovascular complications which are thought to result from iron overload. Doppler ultrasound scanning of the carotid arteries is non-invasive and relatively quick to perform and may identify patients at increased risk of stroke that would otherwise be missed. We aimed to assess the role of Doppler ultrasonography in the evaluation of carotid artery intima media thickness (CIMT) as a predictor to atherosclerotic change in multi-transfused Ý thalassemia major (BTM) patients with iron overload. Case-control study included 42 BTM patients (24 males and 18 females) aged from 3 to 30 years. Thirty-six age and sex matched volunteers were enrolled as control group. All patients were subjected to history taking and physical xamination. Complete blood count and steady state serum ferritin values were recorded and carotid duplex scan was performed for measurement of CIMT of all patients and healthy control. Mean IMT of right anterior wall was 0.8±0.16 (range 0.5 to 1.2) mm, of right posterior wall was 0.80 ± 0.17 (range 0.5 to 1.2), of right lateral wall was 0.8±0.17 (range 0.5 to 1.1) mm. IMT of left anterior wall ranged from 0.5 to 1.2 with mean 0.81±0.17, IMT of left posterior wall ranged from 0.5 to 1.1 with mean equal 0.80±0.17mm and IMT of left lateral wall ranged from 0.5 to 1.2 with mean 0.81±0.18mm. The IMT of right anterior, right posterior and left anterior walls were thicker in patients compared to controls (P value=0.003, 0.015, <0.001 respectively). All Doppler values showed no difference in relation to gender, splenic status or chelation (P value>0.05). There was direct relation between IMT of left anterior wall and age (R=0.3, P=0.035) and IMT of right lateral wall correlated positively with disease duration R=0.3, P=0.04

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