• Olympia Papakonstantinou, Efthymia Alexopoulou, Nikos Economopoulos, Odysseas Benekos, Antonis Kattamis, Stavroula Kostaridou, Vasilis Ladis, Efstathios Efstathopoulos, Athanassios Gouliamos, and Nikolaos L Kelekis.
• 2nd Department of Radiology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece.
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2009 Apr 1; 29 (4): 853-9.

PurposeTo investigate the correlation between the degree of hepatic, splenic, pancreatic, vertebral bone marrow (VBM), and myocardial siderosis, as expressed by relaxation rate (R2 = 1/T2) values, in patients with thalassemia.Materials And MethodsR2 relaxation rate values of liver, spleen, VBM, pancreas, and myocardium were estimated in 68 consecutive transfusion-dependent patients with beta-thalassemia major and 10 healthy controls using a respiratory triggered 16-echo Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) spin echo sequence.ResultsHepatic R2 values were significantly increased in all 68 patients; VBM, pancreatic, and myocardial R2 values were increased in 67/68, 35/47, and 47/61 patients, whereas five patients showed decreased pancreatic R2 attributed to fatty degeneration. Of the 39 nonsplenectomized patients, splenic R2 values were decreased in 30 and normal in nine patients. Hepatic R2 values correlated with splenic (r = 0.63, P < 0.001), VBM (r = 0.52, P < 0.001), but not with myocardial and pancreatic R2 values.ConclusionDespite positive correlations between the degree of hepatic, splenic, and VBM siderosis, as expressed by respective R2 values, there was variability of iron distribution patterns in thalassemic patients. Unpredictable patterns of iron distribution may be seen, such as normal signal of the spleen in the presence of siderotic liver, resembling primary hemochromatosis. Fatty degeneration of the pancreas was not uncommon.

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