Prevalence of genetic haemochromatosis among diabetic patients.
Since diabetes mellitus is a frequent manifestation of haemochromatosis the prevalence of the disease was investigated in 418 patients attending a diabetic clinic. 21 (5%) patients had a persistently high serum ferritin (men, over 400 micrograms/l; women, over 300 micrograms/l) and 5 of these had transferrin saturations consistently over 55%. Idiopathic haemochromatosis was confirmed by liver biopsy in 4 patients, all of whom had a hepatic iron index greater than 2.0. The prevalence rate of previously unrecognised idiopathic haemochromatosis was thus 9.6 per 1000 (general population prevalence 1 in 250), suggesting that screening of diabetic patients for this genetic disease may be more cost-effective than screening in the general population.
Phelps
G
G
Department of Medicine, Flinders Medical Centre, Bedford Park, South Australia.
Chapman
I
I
Hall
P
P
Braund
W
W
Mackinnon
M
M
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D003920:Diabetes Mellitus / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005293:Ferritins / Q000097:blood; D006432:Hemochromatosis / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013021:South Australia
D005293:Ferritins