Pentraxin-3 Levels in Beta Thalassemia Major and Minor Patients and Its Relationship With Antioxidant Capacity and Total Oxidant Stress.

Thalassemia major (TM) results in hemolytic anemia, an increase in intestinal iron absorption, and occurrence of iron loading due to erythrocyte transfusion; the disease is characterized by oxidative damage in major organs. Oxidative stress leads to vascular endothelial damage and forms the basis for serious cardiovascular diseases. Pentraxin-3 (PTX-3) is one of the markers of vascular endothelial damage that increases in response to the oxidative stress, which can be used as an early diagnostic marker for inflammation. This study's purpose is to define the relation between PTX-3 and the vascular endothelial damage that increases with oxidative stress in thalassemia patients. Our study included 35 TM patients, 30 β-thalassemia minor patients, and 30 healthy children. As a result of our study, in TM patients, a positive relation was detected between the PTX-3 levels and the total oxidative stress, triglyceride, and very low-density lipoprotein values, whereas a negative relation was detected with the total antioxidant capacity and high-density lipoprotein values. This result shows that as oxidant stress increases, PTX-3 levels also increase; very low-density lipoprotein and triglyceride contribute to the endothelial damage occurring with oxidative stress. As a result, it was concluded that vascular endothelial damage in thalassemia patients can be evaluated through the serum PTX-3 level.