Non-invasive determination of cardiovascular indices in thalassaemia major patients

Abstract

Thalassaemia is the haematological genetic disorder due to impaired haemoglobin synthesis. Although they depend on multiple blood transfusions for their survival, one side effect called iron induced cardiomyopathy due to multiple blood transfusions leads to life-threatening complications. The contractile function of heart is decreased with the increasing cardiac iron deposition status. Although cardiomyopathy is a reversible complication if treated with iron-chelating therapy, the diagnosis of detecting the heart iron overloading is usually very late. Life expectancy of thalassaemia patients can be extended and the prognosis is good if iron overloading status can be measured accurately in its early development and subsequently treated properly.