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Myocardial iron overload in transfusion‐dependent pediatric patients with acute leukemia
Author(s) -
Lutz K.,
von Komorowski G.,
Dürken M.,
Engelhardt R.,
Dinter D.J.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
pediatric blood and cancer
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.116
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1545-5017
pISSN - 1545-5009
DOI - 10.1002/pbc.21663
Subject(s) - medicine , blood cancer , anemia , blood transfusion , magnetic resonance imaging , cancer , leukemia , acute leukemia , intensive care medicine , heart failure , transfusion therapy , radiology
For patients who regularly receive blood transfusions, cardiac failure is the major cause of death. This is most alarming because it progresses rapidly and is difficult to manage. We present three pediatric patients with acute leukemia whose therapy‐induced anemia was treated with different amounts of red blood cell concentrates (RCC). In all patients, a liver iron overload was measured by super‐conducting interference device (SQUID) biosusceptometry and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). MRI is a rapid, noninvasive, and widely available method of determining early myocardial iron overload caused by multiple blood transfusion due to anemia during polychemotherapy. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2008;51:691–693. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.