Effective method of evaluating myocardial iron concentration in pediatric patients with thalassemia major

Arwa Khaled,1 Dina A Ezzat,2 Hoda A Salem,3 Hadeel M Seif,4 Hoda Rabee51Department Of Clinical Pharmacy, Beni-Suef University Hospital, Beni-Suef University, Beni Suef, Egypt; 2Department of Pediatrics and Pediatric Hematology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni-Suef University, Beni Suef, Egypt; 3Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Al – Azhar University, Girl Branch, Cairo, Egypt; 4Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt; 5Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Faculty of Pharmacy, Beni-Suef University, Beni Suef, EgyptBackground: The use of T2* magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been promoted by recent studies as a noninvasive method for the detection of iron overload in thalassemia major patients. This study aims to estimate the iron load in the heart and liver of thalassemia major patients using T2* MRI and to determine its correlation with the left ventricle ejection fraction and serum ferritin level.Methods: Forty β-Thalassemia major patients were included in the study. We evaluated the serum ferritin level, echocardiography, cardiac T2*, myocardial iron concentration (MIC), liver iron concentration (LIC) and hepatic T2* in all patients. CMR T2* findings were categorized as normal cardiac T2* (T2* >20ms) or abnormal cardiac T2* (T2*