Conclusion:
The conventional echocardiography was not sufficient to determine the
actual myocardial functions in beta-thalassemia major. We showed that
systolic and diastolic function was impaired in both myocardial iron
loaded (T2*MRI<20ms) and non-loaded (T2*MRI≥20ms) thalassemia
patients when they were evaluated by TD. In our study, TD measurements
showed left and right ventricular dysfunction in patients considered as
myocardial iron non-load. Normal cardiac T2*MRI in thalassemia patients
does not always associated with normal cardiac function. Therefore, we
suggest that combining T2*MRI with TD measurements, not only velocities
but also time intervals and indexes, especially patients with normal
T2*MRI score, could lead to a better management of cardiac
complications.
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Table I: Demographic data, serum ferritin level and
conventional echocardiographic measurements in the study and control
groups