title: Impact of magnetic resonance imaging on cardiac mortality in thalassemia major.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate whether the introduction of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the management of thalassemia major (TM) patients has affected the risk of cardiac death.
  
  
  METHODS
  In all, 804 TM patients from two large reference units were included and the risk of dying of cardiac causes, before and after their first MRI, was assessed by a Cox proportional hazards model with time-dependent covariates.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Adding information from MRI reduced the risk of cardiac death from 6.0 deaths/1000 patient-years to 3.9 deaths/1000 patient-years (P = 0.22). The risk of cardiac death before having an MRI study was 82% higher compared to the risk observed after the first MRI.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MRI has become a vital component of ongoing management and seems to have a beneficial effect on cardiac mortality in TM.
authors: Thalassaemia Unit, 1st Dept. of Paediatrics, University of Athens, Aghia Sophia Children's Hospital, Athens, Greece. georgehouliaras@msn.com
authors: Giorgos
authors: G
authors: Chouliaras
authors: Vasilios
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authors: Berdoukas
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authors: Ladis
authors: Antonis
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authors: Kattamis
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