Observational study correlates liver iron concentration with serum ferritin in beta-thalassemia, suggesting R2* MRI holds promise for precise iron management.
Key Points
To investigate liver iron concentration using R2* MRI and its connection with serum ferritin in transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia.
Conducted a prospective observational study at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar.
Enrolled diagnosed transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) patients from 2020 to 2022.
Collected clinical history and performed serum ferritin and High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) for hemoglobin analysis.
Utilized multiplex ARMS-PCR to identify genetic mutations and non-invasive R2* MRI to measure liver iron concentration.
Evaluated data using IBM SPSS Statistics and Spearman correlation test.
Included 53 TDT patients based on inclusion criteria.
Median R2* value from MRI scan was 549.6 Hz with a liver iron concentration of 130.74 micromole/g.
Found liver iron overload in 82% of patients.
No correlation was identified between liver iron concentration and serum ferritin or other clinical characteristics.