Evaluation of the Relationship between Serum Ferritin Level and Renal Function in Patients with Thalassemia Major

Serum ferritin in patients with thalassemia major is an indicator of iron overload, which is the main cause of damage to various organs of the body in patients with thalassemia major. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between serum ferritin level and renal function in thalassemia major patients.

This descriptive and cross-sectional study was performed on patients with thalassemia major in Kurdistan province (west region of Iran) in 2019. All patients with thalassemia major were evaluated in terms of having regular blood transfusions for at least 1 year. The obtained data were entered into SPSS 22 software and statistically analyzed after measuring serum ferritin, creatinine and calculating glomerular filtration rate (GFR).

In this study, 122 patients were evaluated according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. 54.1% were male and 45.9% were female. The mean age of patients was 20.28 ± 8.14 years, the mean hemoglobin was 8.95 ± 1.17gr/dl, the mean ferritin was 2812 ± 2134 ng/ml, the mean creatinine was 0.65 ± 0.17 mg/dl and the mean GFR (ml/min) was 122.19 ± 24.13. No significant correlation was found between GFR and serum ferritin (P> 0.05).

Due to the lack of correlation between serum ferritin and GFR, it can be concluded that iron overload has no role in possible glomerular damage in thalassemia major patients.