The Study of Growth in Thalassemic Patients and its Correlation with Serum Ferritin Level

Abstract Background Beta-thalassemia is a common hereditary hemoglobinopathy, which is a reason of microcytic hypochromic anemia. Patients with major thalassemia require multiple blood transfusions. This study evaluated growth in thalassemic patient and relationship with ferritin level. Materials and Methods This is a cross sectional study on seventy patients (36 boys, 34girls) with transfusion dependent major thalassemia at the special diseases center of Yazd. Their age rang was 2 to 28 year. All of them received chelating therapy (Deferoxamine) every night. Weight, height, body mass index (BMI) and serum ferritin of patients were recorded. Results In this study 46 (65.71%) of patients had height less than five percentile, and 24(34.29%) more than five percentile. Thirty eight patients (54.28%) had weight more than five percentile and 32(45.71%) less than five percentile. BMI of 13(18.6%) patients were low and 57(81.4%) patients had normal BMI. Mean serum ferritin in patients with height more than 5 percentile was 2252+/-1040 and with height less than 5 percentile was 2962+/-1606(P-value=0.072). mean serum ferritin in patient with weight more than 5 percentile was 2309+/-1284 and with weight less than 5 percentile was 3199+/-1545 ( P-value=0.017). In patient with normal BMI, mean serum ferritin was 2679+/-1378 and it was 2596+/-1777 with low BMI. Conclusion High serum ferritin levels during puberty cause delay of growth retardation and development in transfusion dependent thalassemia patients. Key words beta-Thalassemia, Growth, Deferoxamine, Blood Transfusion