AbstractKey wordsDOI
Thalassemia is the commonest form of heamoglubinpathy in the world, in which patients may need frequent regular blood transfusion that may lead to impairment the normal function of many organs such as heart, liver, kidneys, and endocrine glands due to increase free iron deposition in these vital organs. The present study was carried out to investigate the effect of transfusional iron overload on the liver and kidney functions and on the oxidative stress status of the patients with B-thalassemia major and compared the results with healthy volunteer subjects (control group). Forty six patients with B-thalassemia major and forty healthy individuals were used in the current study, the patients were analyzed at thalassemia center of Al-Kut hospital to assessment the liver and kidney functions via measure the alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), Alkaline phosphatase (ALP), albumin, creatinine, urea and serum ferritin and the correlation between serum ferritin and ALT concentration. In addition, assess the antioxidant status of the thalassemic patients by measure the serum malondialdehyde (MDA), Catalase and Reduced glutathione (GSH). The results have been shown significant increase (P ≤ 0.05) in all the above criteria related with liver and kidney function (ALT, AST, ALP, Ferritin creatinine), as well as diminished antioxidant status via increased MDA and decreased catalase and GSH. In addition , serum ferritin concentration revealed potent correlation with serum ALT and MDA concentration . Therefore, the results explain that regular blood transfusion to the B-thalassemia major patients (despite increase lifespin of patients) lead to increase deposition of iron in kidney and liver causing iron overload despite of the patients received iron chelating therapy to reduce accumulation of iron.
major thalassemia, Iron overload, Oxidative stress, blood transfusion
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