Hemocromatosis

1. Hepatotoxicity is the most common finding in patients with iron overload since the liver is the major recipient of iron excess, even though the kidney could be a target of iron toxicity. The effect of iron overload was studied in the early stages after iron-dextran injection in rats, as a model for secondary hemocromatosis. 2. Total hepatic and kidney iron content was markedly elevated over control values 20 h after the iron administration. Plasma GOT, GPT and LDH activities were not affected, suggesting that liver cell permeability was not affected by necrosis...

This study shows that hemoglobin H disease patients aged between 0.5 and 44 years, usually (27 out of 30) have normal serum ferritin levels according to age. This reconfirms that in this disease there are usually normal iron stores. However, in a few patients (3 out of 30) increased levels were found. This may be due to inappropriate iron medication, transfusions or associated idiopathic hereditary hemocromatosis gene.

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