Assessment of Liver Functions in Thalassaemia

Abstract

Thalassaemias are a heterogenous group of genetic heritable disorders of haemoglobin synthesis, considered as the most common monogenic disorder in the world. This study was conducted to find out the role of iron overload- without concomitant viral hepatitis -as a cause of liver dysfunction in patients with β-thalassaemia major. One hundred six (106) patients with homozygous β-thalassaemia major and forty four (44) apparently healthy subjects were analyzed at the Thalassaemic Centre of Ibn Al-Atheer hospital in Mosul city in Iraq for the assessment of liver functions as reflected by the serum levels of bilirubin, AST, ALT and ALP and iron status as reflected by serum ferritin. The mean pretransfusional Hb was (87.33±13.84 g/L and 85.85±13.21 g/L) for thalassaemic males and females respectively. All thalassaemic patients showed elevated serum ferritin with a mean level of (3799.30±2343.68 ng/ml and 4100.61±1977.28 ng/ml) for thalassaemic males and females respectively. A significant increase in the serum levels of AST, ALT, ALP and bilirubin was found in thalassaemic patients with respect to control subjects. Serum ferritin showed a significant positive correlation with ALT in male and female patients. Hepatomegaly was found in 71.70% of the studied cases. A significant alteration in liver functions of thalassaemic patients shown by changes in biochemical markers and hepatomegaly, both with the close association between elevated ALT and iron overload, necessate re-evaluation of transfusion, Desferal doses and therapies other than blood transfusion.