Cardiac abnormalities in Mild to severe β thalassemia/HbE (Thai)

Abstract

Follow-up study of cardiac involvement including echocardiographic studies in β thalassemia/HbE disease has been lacking. To prospectively follow-up cardiac abnormalities in mild to severe β thalassemia/HbE disease, we re-examined 48 patients with the use of echocardiography. The patients were aged 12.5 + 4.4 (range, 2-23) years. All patients had normal left ventricular ejection fraction and fractional shortening. In addition, patients had left ventricular mass and left ventricular free wall thickness comparable to previous studies (p>0.05). Peak early mitral inflow velocity (E) and peak late mitral inflow velocity (A) were also comparable with previous studies (p>0.05). Serial longer follow up of these patients is needed to address any diastolic abnormalities before the development of systolic dysfunction, which is the late sign of cardiac involvement of this disease.