Liver iron and serum ferritin levels are misleading for estimating cardiac, pancreatic, splenic and total body iron load in thalassemia patients: factors influencing the heterogenic distribution of excess storage iron in organs as identified by MRI T2*.

A comparative assessment of excess storage iron distribution in the liver, heart, spleen and pancreas of β-thalassemia major (β-ΤΜ) patients has been carried out using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) relaxation times T2*. The β-ΤΜ patients (8-40 years, 11 males, 9 females) had variable serum ferritin levels (394-5603 μg/L) and were treated with deferoxamine (n = 10), deferiprone (n = 5) and deferoxamine/deferiprone combination (n = 5). MRI T2* assessment revealed that excess iron is not proportionally distributed among the organs but is stored at different concentrations in each organ and the distribution is different for each β-ΤΜ patient.