The Correlation between Troponin and Ferritin Serum Levels in the Patients with Major Beta-Thalassemia.
BACKGROUND
Thalassemia is a hereditary hemoglobinopathy whose most common complication is cardiac involvement which ends up in these patients' death. Since troponin is a sensitive and specific marker for the detection of microinfarct, we studied the relationship between troponin and ferritin serum levels for early diagnosis of cardiac involvement in these patients.


METHODS
This case-control study was performed on 80 patients, including 40 patients with major thalassemia and normal echocardiography and 40 healthy volunteers ranging from 6 months to 16 years old. All the children were examined and the eligible children who were not infected with known heart disease, iron deficiency anemia, kidney disease, diabetes, fever, and systemic diseases were enrolled into the study after obtaining written informed consents from their parents. At 8:00 A.M. before breakfast, 5cc blood was drawn from these children. After collecting the samples, ferritin and troponin serum levels were evaluated using ELISA and electro- kymonolonsense methods, respectively. The gathered data were analyzed through the SPSS statistical software (v. 20) and T-test. Besides, P value<0.05 was considered as statistically significant.


RESULTS
The study results revealed a significant difference between the two groups regarding the mean of the serum levels of troponin (P=0.045) and ferritin (P=0.001). In this study, no significant correlation was observed between serum troponin and ferritin levels and age and BMI in the two groups. Also, no significant relationship was found between serum troponin level and sex (P=0.264).


CONCLUSIONS
In microinfarct, troponin increases independent of ferritin; therefore, it can be used for early detection of cardiac involvement in thalassemia patients to determine the sub-clinical effects.
Department of Pediatrics, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, IR Iran.
Iraj
I
Shahramian
Department of Pediatrics, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, IR Iran.
Motahhare
M
Razzaghian
Departement of Epidemiology, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, IR Iran.
Abbas Ali
AA
Ramazani
Departement of Pathology, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, IR Iran.
Ghasem Ali
GA
Ahmadi
Pediatric Cardiology, Children and Adolescent Health Research Center, Zahedan University of Medical Sciences, Zahedan, IR Iran.
Noor Mohammad
NM
Noori
Departement of Biochemistry, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, IR Iran.
Ali Reza
AR
Rezaee
Cardiac Involvement; Ferritin; Major Beta-Thalassemia; Troponin