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