Thesis (Ph.D.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Medicine - Department of Pediatrics

The aim of this study was to assess serum hepcidin levels among transfusion and non transfusion dependent thalassemia patients, to radiologically evaluate iron level in different tissues, to find a correlation between serum hepcidin and the studied iron overload indices and to identify the risk factors of iron overload. Methods: Eighty six thalassemia patients (56 TDT and 30 NTDT) were all subjected to history taking, clinical examination, and laboratory testing including full blood picture, serum ferritin detected by enzyme linked fluorescent assay, serum hepcidin: detected by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay . HAMP gene polymorphisms were detected using PCR-RFLP technique. Thirty six patients had a liver MRI (15 NTDT and 22 TDT) in which the pancreas and adrenal glands were visualized in eighteen patients (12 TDT and 6 NTDT) and twenty one had a heart MRI (14 TDT and 7 NTDT). Results: In this study, mean serum hepcidin was higher among TDT patients than NTDT patients. Among our patients,16.6% did not have liver iron overload (LIC<2mg/kg dw), 38.8% had mild iron overload (LIC 2-6 mg/kg dw), and 44.4% had moderate to severe iron overload (LIC >6mg/kg dw). Out of 21 evaluated patients: 4.5% had severe cardiac siderosis (T2*<10ms), 4.5% had moderate cardiac siderosis (T2* 10-20ms) and 91% had no cardiac iron overload (T2*>21ms). 61% of the studied patients demonstrated pancreatic T2*<21ms

Issued also as CD