Infection due to Yersinia enterocolitica in a series of patients with beta-thalassemia: incidence and predisposing factors.

Over 15 years, 14 patients with yersiniosis in two North American comprehensive thalassemia clinics (0.6 cases per 100 patient-years) presented with fever (100%), diarrhea (86%), right-lower-quadrant abdominal pain (71%), bacteremia (57%), a palpable abdominal mass (36%), and pharyngitis (28%). Clinically apparent infection occurred within 10 days of blood transfusion in 57% of patients. Nine patients (64%) had only a modest elevation in serum level of ferritin (< 2,000 micrograms/L). Patients with focal abdominal findings had a higher body iron burden, as estimated by the serum ferritin level, and significant intraabdominal suppurative complications. Two patients were not receiving iron-chelating therapy with deferoxamine; one patient was receiving the experimental chelator deferiprone (L1). Iron-loaded patients with beta-thalassemia are at greatly increased risk for severe yersiniosis, even when their body iron burden (as indicated by the serum ferritin level) is only moderately elevated and they are not receiving iron-chelating therapy with deferoxamine.