Myocardial iron overload assessment by T2* magnetic resonance imaging in adult transfusion dependent patients with acquired anemias

Only limited data are available regarding myocardial iron overload in adult patients with transfusion dependent acquired anemias. To address this topic using MRI T2* we studied 27 consecutive chronic transfusion dependent patients with acquired anemias: (22 myelodysplastic syndrome, 5 primary myelofibrosis). Cardiac MRI T2* values obtained ranged from 5.6 to 58.7 (median value 39.8) milliseconds. Of the 24 analyzable patients, cardiac T2* correlated with transfusion burden (p=0.0002). No patient who had received less than 290 mL/kg of packed red blood cells (101 units=20 grams of iron) had a pathological cardiac T2* value (< 20 ms). All patients who had received at least 24 PRBC units showed MRI T2* detectable hepatic iron (liver T2* value