1.Prevalence of endocrine complications in transfusion dependent thalassemia in Hospital Pulau Pinang: A pilot study
Lee Kee Tat ; Lim Shueh Lin ; Goh Ai Sim
The Medical Journal of Malaysia 2020;75(1):33-37
Introduction: Frequent blood transfusions results in iron
overload and lead to multiple endocrine complications. In
spite of improvements in iron chelation therapy, a significant
number of transfusion dependent thalassaemia (TDT)
patients still develop endocrine complications. The aim of
this study is to evaluate the prevalence of various endocrine
complications in our adult TDT patients and to study the
correlation with serum ferritin and liver iron concentration
(LIC).
Methods: A retrospective review of all TDT patients treated
in Haematology Unit, Hospital Pulau Pinang (HPP) was
conducted.
Results: Of the 45 adult TDT patients, 22 were males and 23
were females with mean age of 28.8±6.9 years old. Majority
of TDT in HPP were beta thalassemia major (71.1%), followed
by E-Beta thalassemia (24.4%) and HbH-Constant Spring
(4.4%). Frequency of transfusion was 3-4 weekly. 40.0% of
adult TDT suffered from at least one endocrine complication.
Among the adult TDT patients with endocrine complication,
50% have one endocrinopathy, 38.9% with two types of
endocrinopathies and 11.1% of them have three or more
types of endocrinopathies. Hypogonadism (22.2%) was the
commonest endocrine complication, followed by
osteoporosis (20%), hypothyroidism (13.3%), diabetes
mellitus (6.7%) and hypocortisolism (4.4%). Patients with
endocrine complications were significantly older. Mean
serum ferritin level and LIC was higher among patients with
endocrine complications but both were not statistically
significant.
Conclusion: Endocrinopathy is still prevalent in 40% of adult
TDT patients. This leads to higher health-care resource
utilization, cost and significant morbidities among patients
with TDT. Therefore, regular monitoring and early detection
with intensification of chelation therapy is essential.