Comparison between serum ferritin and computed tomographic densities of liver, spleen, kidney and pancreas in beta-thalassaemia major.

Thirty-seven children with beta-thalassaemia major, eight children with liver cirrhosis, and 20 matched controls were enrolled in this study. Serum ferritin was determined in each subject by radio-immunoassay and liver enzymes by standard methods. The liver, spleen, kidney and pancreas densities were obtained by computed tomography using a Siemens Somatom 2 Scanner with 8-mm slice thickness. The iron content of liver biopsies from 10 patients was graded by staining. The mean serum ferritin of the thalassaemic patients was significantly higher than that of the control group (p = 0.0001). The ferritin of patients with cirrhosis and Wilson's disease was similar to that of the control group. The liver density of the thalassaemic patients was significantly higher than that of the control group (p less than 0.0001) while that of patients with liver cirrhosis and Wilson's disease was similar to the control group. The liver iron content of patients with liver cirrhosis was within the normal range. The spleen and kidney densities of patients with thalassaemia were higher than that of the control group with p values of 0.02 and 0.056, respectively. The density of the pancreas in patients with thalassaemia was not significantly different from that of the control group, (p = 0.52). There was correlation between the liver density and serum ferritin in patients with thalassaemia (r = 0.432, p less than 0.01) while there was no correlation between spleen, pancreas and kidney densities with serum ferritin.