The New England journal of medicine
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We examined the efficacy of long-term subcutaneous deferoxamine therapy in the prevention of iron-related cardiac disease in patients with thalassemia major who began treatment after the age of 10 years. Of 36 such patients without preexisting cardiac disease, 19 did not comply with the program of chelation therapy. Over the course of treatment (1977 to 1983) serum ferritin and aspartate aminotransferase levels fell in the compliant group, from mean values (+/- S. ⋯ In contrast, 12 noncompliant patients acquired cardiac disease, and 7 died. In addition, the mean age of the compliant population (18.9 +/- 4.5 years) now approaches the mean age of acquisition of cardiac disease in the noncompliant group (19 +/- 4.3). These data demonstrate that compliance with treatment with deferoxamine may protect patients from cardiac disease induced by iron overload.