Cardiac iron overload in transfusion-dependent patients with myelodysplastic syndromes.
Roy NBA., Myerson S., Schuh AH., Bignell P., Patel R., Wainscoat JS., McGowan S., Marchi E., Atoyebi W., Littlewood T., Chacko J., Vyas P., Killick SB.
Transfusion-dependent myelodysplastic (MDS) patients are prone to iron overload. We evaluated 43 transfused MDS patients with T2* magnetic resonance imaging scans. 81% had liver and 16·8% cardiac iron overload. Liver R2* (1000/T2*), but not cardiac R2*, was correlated with number of units transfused (r=0·72, P<0·0001) and ferritin (r=0·53, P<0·0001). The area under the curve of a time-ferritin plot was found to be much greater in patients with cardiac iron loading (median 53·7x10(5) Megaunits vs. 12·2x10(5) Megaunits, P=0·002). HFE, HFE2, HAMP or SLC40A1 genotypes were not predictors of iron overload in these patients.