title: Magnetic resonance imaging of transfusional hepatic iron overload.
abstract: The transfusional iron overload in 11 adult patients suffering from haematological malignancy was studied in 14 consecutive 1.0 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies. Routine T1- and T2-weighted spin echo sequences and a fat suppressed sequence (STIR) were used. The ratio from a region of interest of the liver parenchyma and from a manganese chloride reference phantom was measured. There was a definite difference between the signal ratio from the haematological patient group and the control group (p = 0.0001). The patients showed a diminished signal ratio in all pulse sequences used. There was a statistically significant inverse linear correlation between the number of transfused red cell units and the signal ratio in the T1-weighted (p = 0.03) and the T2-weighted (p = 0.03) images. A definite decrease of the effect is found after 20-30 red cell unit transfusions in T2-weighted and STIR images.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Finland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bondestam
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lamminen
authors.forename: V J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Anttila
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ruutu
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ruutu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017707:Erythrocyte Transfusion / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006400:Hematocrit; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000378:metabolism*; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D008107:Liver Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D007501:Iron