Serum ferritin in beta-thalassaemia intermedia.

The iron status of 10 patients with beta-thalassaemia intermedia has been investigated in order to assess whether the liver iron overload could be constantly predicted through the patients' S-ferritin levels. Our data have shown that only when the iron overload is in the far advanced stages do the S-ferritin concentrations appear to be strongly raised, whilst in the early stages of the disease the levels fall to normal ranges with consequent underestimation of the expanding iron stores. Thus, in the early stages of the iron overload the liver iron burden of such patients is only reflected by both chemical and histochemical investigations performed on the liver biopsy specimens long before the rise in their S-ferritin levels.