Correlation of Serum Ferritin Level with Cardiac Function in β-Thalassemia Major

Background: the most important problem in regular transfusion dependent β-thalassemia major is cardiac dysfunction due to iron deposition in it. the aim of this study was to evaluate correlation between serum ferritin levels and cardiac function in β-thalassemia major in mofid hospital. materials and methods: there were 112 β-thalassemia patients with a mean age of 13.55± 6.12 years, of whom 49 were males and 63 were females. patients enrolled in this study were divided into two groups; group 1 (n=33) who were good users of chelation therapy with ferritin levels of <1500 ng/dl and group 2 (n=79) who were not good users of chelation therapy with ferritin levels more than 1500 ng/dl. clinical history, physical examination, and laboratory investigations along with serum ferritin levels and echocardiography were assessed for all patients. results: overall ferritin levels were 200-8600 ng/dl. mean ejection fraction was 64.72% and 63.30% in groups 1 and 2, respectively. there was not a significant difference between two groups. mean fractional shortening were 29.30% and 28.82% in groups 1 and 2, respectively. again there was not a significant difference. conclusion: this study has shown that there was no significant correlation between echocardiographic indices and serum ferritin levels in major β-thalassaemia. thus, other methods should be used to evaluate cardiac iron burden.