Mg. Bonetti et al., HEPATIC IRON OVERLOAD IN THALASSEMIC PATIENTS - PROPOSAL AND VALIDATION OF AN MRI METHOD OF ASSESSMENT, Pediatric radiology, 26(9), 1996, pp. 650-656
Citations number
16
Categorie Soggetti
Radiology,Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging",Pediatrics
Background. A simple, accurate, reproducible and noninvasive method of
body iron overload assessment would be of great clinical use. Objecti
ve. The purpose of the study was the implementation of a 0.5-T MRI met
hod for liver iron overload measurement. Materials and methods. Thirty
patients with thalassemia major took part in the study. Liver and par
aspinal muscle signal intensity (SI) measurements were performed on T1
-weighted images and normalized on a standard phantom, and a subjectiv
e hemochromatosis grading scale was made on both T1- and T2-weighted i
mages. Serum ferritin levels and tissue iron from liver biopsy specime
ns were determined for comparison. Results. A close correlation was fo
und between bioptic liver iron and both the liver-to-phantom SI ratio
(r = -0.88) and the subjective grading scale (rho = 0.89). Serum ferri
tin correlated poorly with liver iron deposition, whether assessed by
biopsy (r = 0.62) or MRI (r = -0.69). Conclusions. Both the subjective
and the quantitative MRI methods proposed here are clinically valuabl
e, with the former being adequate for a gross, the latter for an accur
ate estimation of tissue iron overload.