prevalence of diabetes mellitus in patients with transfusion dependent β thalassemia

introduction: thalassemia is common in iran. appropriate therapy for this disease includes a regular blood transfusion and chelation therapy. however, patients will inevitably confront with side effects, particularly iron overloads in critical organ including heart, ductless glands and liver. this study tries to determine the prevalence of diabetes mellitus in transfusion dependent β thalassemia major. patients & methods: this is a cross sectional study and included all 437 patients suffering thalassemia major that were referred to medical centers linked to the iranian blood transfusion organization since jan 2004 up to jan 2005. all patients tested for cbc, fbs, 2hr bs, hbalc, liver and renal function, and endocrine disease. initially, reports of adenoidal experiments as well as other associate parameters were provided via medical folders. results: four hundreds and thirty-seven patients enrolled in this study, the diabetes found in 28 patients (5.4%). there was no relationship between sex and the kind of thalassemia. in patients with thalassemia intermedia, the mean of age was 34.7 ± 1.4 years and the mean of ferritin was 893.2 ± 122.4 mg/dl. and patients with thalassemia major, were 27.1 ± 0.3 years and 1678.8 ± 87.5. mg/dl respectively the mean of age and ferritin in two groups of thalassemia intermedia and thalassemia major had significant difference while the mean of ferritin in diabetic and non-diabetic groups had no significant difference. conclusion: we can conclude according to previous studies considering endocrine abnormalities in thalassemic patients, that our data is just like others.