In:
Blood, American Society of Hematology, Vol. 90, No. 3 ( 1997-08-01), p. 994-998
Abstract:
In thalassemia after successful bone marrow transplantation (BMT), iron overload remains an important cause of morbidity. After BMT, patients have normal erythropoiesis capable of producing a hyperplastic response to phlebotomy so that this procedure can be contemplated as a method of mobilizing iron from overloaded tissues. A phlebotomy program (6 mL/kg blood withdrawal at 14-day intervals) was proposed to 48 patients with prolonged follow-up (range, 2 to 7 years) after BMT. Seven patients were not submitted to the program (five because of refusal and two because of reversible side effects). The remaining 41 patients (mean age, 16 ± 2.9 years) were treated for a mean period of 35 ± 18 months. All were evaluated before and after 3 ± 0.6 years of followup. Values are expressed as mean ± standard deviation (SD) or as median with a range (25 to 75 percentile). Serum ferritin decreased from 2,587 (2,129 to 4,817) to 417 (210 to 982) μg/L (P 〈 .0001), total transferrin increased from 2.34 ± 0.37 to 2.7 ± 0.58 g/L (P = .0001), transferrin saturation decreased from 90% ± 14% to 50% ± 29% (P 〈 .0001). Liver iron concentration evaluated on liver biopsy specimens decreased from 20.8 (15.5 to 28.1) to 4.2 (1.6 to 14.6) mg/g dry weight (P 〈 .0001). Aspartate transaminase decreased from 2.7 ± 2 to 1.1 ± 0.6 (P 〈 .0001) and alanine transaminase from 5.2 ± 3.4 to 1.7 ± 1.2 (P 〈 .0001) times the upper level of normality. The Knodell score for liver histological activity decreased from 6.9 ± 3 to 4.9 ± 2.8 (P 〈 .0001). These data indicate that phlebotomy is safe, efficient, and widely applicable to ex-thalassemics after BMT.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1528-0020
,
0006-4971
DOI:
10.1182/blood.V90.3.994.994_994_998
Language:
English
Publisher:
American Society of Hematology
Publication Date:
1997
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1468538-3
detail.hit.zdb_id:
80069-7
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