serum ferritin levels correlation with heart and liver mri and lic in patients with transfusion-dependent thalassemia

background iron-loaded cardiac complication is the essential cause of mortality in patients with thalassemia. early detection and treatment of cardiac over-load can reduce mortality. objectives the current study aimed to evaluate the relationship between serum ferritin levels and t2* magnetic resonance imaging (mri) of heart and liver and liver iron concentration (lic) to diagnose iron over load in countries with limited access. patients and methods in the current cross-sectional study, 85 iranian patients with thalassemia with the mean age of 22.7 ± 7 years were randomly selected. all patients were on regular blood transfusion. echocardiography of heart and liver t2* mri, determination of serum ferritin levels, and lic were performed in all subjects at the same time. the correlation of serum ferritin levels with t2*mri of heart and liver, and lic was assessed. p value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. conclusions serum ferritin levels can be used to diagnose iron over-load in patients with thalassemiaas an alternative method in areas where t2* mri is not available. results abnormal myocardial iron load (t2* mri < 20 ms) was detected in 58% of the patients and among whom, 36% had severe myocardial iron load (t2* mri < 10 ms). median and interquartile range of serum ferritin levels were 1434 and 2702 respectively in patients with thalassemia. serum ferritin levels showed a statistically significant positive correlation with lic (rs = 0.718, p < 0.001) and significant negative correlation with t2* heart (rs = -0.329, p = 0.002), and t2* liver (rs = -0.698, p < 0.001). however, ejection fraction was not significantly correlated with serum ferritin levels in the patients (p = 0.399).