Pancreatic iron loading predicts cardiac iron loading in thalassemia major

Diabetes mellitus and cardiomyopathy are common in chronically transfused thalassemia major patients, occurring in the second and third decades of life.
We postulated that pancreatic iron deposition would precede cardiac iron loading, representing an environment favorable for extrahepatic iron deposition. To test this hypothesis, we examined pancreatic and cardiac iron in 131 thalassemia major patients over a 4-year period.

BLOOD, 5 NOVEMBER 2009  VOLUME 114, NUMBER 19