Getting the iron out: preventing and treating heart failure in transfusion-dependent thalassemia.
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 18020000.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Congestive heart failure is the most common cause of death in patients with thalassemia, as chronic accumulation of iron due to regular blood transfusions leads to biventricular systolic dysfunction and death at a very young age. The quantity of iron deposited in the heart is a key determinant of outcome. Early diagnosis and intensive chelation of the cardiac iron can avert heart failure and its fatal outcome.