Total Antioxidant Status in Patients with Major β-Thalassemia.
OBJECTIVE
Beta-thalassemia major is an autosomal recessive disease causing severe and hemolytic anemia, which begins about 2-6 months after birth. Iron overload, which arises from recurrent transfusion and ineffective erythropoiesis, can enhance oxidative stress in thalassemic patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the serum total antioxidant capacity of patients with ß-Thalassemia major.


METHODS
Sixty six Iranian patients with β-thalassemia major and 66 age-gender matched controls were evaluated for serum total antioxidant status (TAS), uric acid (UA), bilirubin and albumin. In addition, serum ferritin and transaminases were recorded in these subjects.


RESULTS
Significant increases of TAS, UA, and bilirubin were observed in the patient group, compared with the control group (P<0.01). Mean TAS and bilirubin in male patients was higher than in females (P=0.005 and P=0.008, respectively). There was also direct correlation between TAS and albumin (P<0.001), bilirubin (P<0.001) and UA (P=0.002).


CONCLUSIONS
Endogenous antioxidants such as ferritin, UA and bilirubin can result in increased level of TAS in the patients with Beta-thalassemia major. Compensatory excess of TAS to oxidative stress could also be the reason for difference between our findings and previous studies.
Pediatrics Center of Excellence, Children's Medical Center, Tehran, Iran.
Fatemeh
F
Bazvand
Sedigheh
S
Shams
Mahtab
M
Borji Esfahani
Lili
L
Koochakzadeh
Maryam
M
Monajemzadeh
Mohammad-Taghi Haghi
MT
Ashtiani
Nima
N
Rezaei