Cardiac involvement related to iron overload caused by long-term blood transfusion is a major cause of death for patients with thalassemia major. Patients' survival will be improved greatly if cardiomyopathy resulted from transfusional iron overload could be detected timely and effective iron chelation be initiated promptly. In the present article, various evaluation Methods currently used in clinical practice are reviewed, with particular focus on cardiac MRI for the monitoring of myocardial involvement related to iron overload.

Objective To explore the relationship of red blood cell distribution width (RDW) with severity and prognosis in children with sepsis. Methods The RDW, clinical features and prognosis of 494 sepsis children were retrospectively ana-lyzed. Results The RDW was increased in 305 sepsis children (61.74%) among whom 49.30%in sepsis group, 60.27%in sever sepsis group and 83.46%in septic shock group. The difference was signiifcant (P<0.001). The mortality of RDW increased children among three groups was 1.89%, 20.45%, 67.57%, and it was signiifcantly different (P<0.001). The rates of increased RDW was 56.15%in 374 survived cases and 79.17%in 120 died cases, and the difference was signiifcant (P<0.001). Pediatric critical illness score (PCIS) was negatively correlated with RDW (P<0.001), while mortality was positively correlated with RDW (P<0.001). Conclusions The rate of increased RDW is high in children with severe sepsis and septic shock and the level of RDW is closely related to the prognosis of patients.

Objective To explore the relationship between serum albumin (ALB) combined with red blood cell distribution width (RDW) in progression and prognosis of children with heart failure. Method A total of 144 children with heart failure were divided into light, medium, and heavy group according to the modified ROSS score; another aspect, they also were divided into survival group and death group. ALB, RDW, and modified ROSS score were measured to assess the relationship between the factors and the death by logistic regression analysis. Results There are 73 boys and 71 girls. The cases of mild, moderate, and severe group were 78, 39, and 27, respectively. Age and gender difference in three groups were not statistically significant (P>0.05). The ratio of high RDW was 54.86% (79/144), the ratio of low serum ALB was 33.33% (48/144). Chi-square analysis indicated that a severer status of the disease correlated with a lower ALB level (P <0.05) and a higher RDW. The analysis of rank correlation indicating the degree of heart failure was negatively correlated with the related trends of ALB and RDW (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis indicating a higher risk of death of the disease correlated with a lower ALB level (P<0.05, OR=0.839)and a higher modified ROSS score(P<0.05,OR=1.324).Conclusions The ALB,RDW,and the modified ROSS score are closely related to the severity in heart failure children. The ALB and the modified ROSS score have important clinical prognostic significance in evaluating the prognosis.