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British Journal of Radiology 74 (2001),407-410 © 2001 The British Institute of Radiology

Full paper

T2 relaxation rate of basal ganglia and cortex in patients with ß-thalassaemia major

Z Metafratzi, MD 1 M I Argyropoulou, MD 1 D N Kiortsis, MD 2 C Tsampoulas, MD 1 N Chaliassos, MD 3 and S C Efremidis, MD 1

1 Departments of Radiology 2 Physiology 3 Child Health, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, Greece

Correspondence: M I Argyropoulou, MD, Department of Radiology, School of Medicine, University of Ioannina, 45110 Ioannina, Greece

In thalassaemic patients, neurophysiological disturbances have been associated with high serum ferritin levels and desferrioxamine therapy. In the presence of a magnetic field, ferritin, the main iron storage protein, induces a preferential decrease of the T2 relaxation time. The purpose of this study was to evaluate thalassaemic patients for brain iron deposition by assessing the T2 relaxation rate (1/T2) of the grey matter. 41 thalassaemic patients (age range 8.5–44 years, mean 24 years) and 58 age- and sex-matched controls were included in the study. Current serum ferritin levels were obtained. The 1/T2 values of the cortex (motor and temporal) (mean 0.0122 ms-1, SD 0.0004), putamen (mean 0.0137 ms-1, SD 0.0004) and caudate nucleus (mean 0.0132 ms-1, SD 0.0003) were higher in patients compared with the controls (mean 0.0110 ms-1, SD 0.0004; mean 0.0120 ms-1, SD 0.0005; mean 0.0117 ms-1, SD 0.0003, respectively) (p<0.001 for all parameters). No statistically significant differences were found in the globus pallidus. No correlation was found between 1/T2 and serum ferritin. The higher values of 1/T2 in the cortex, putamen and caudate nucleus of thalassaemic patients probably reflect a higher iron deposition. The lack of differences in 1/T2 of the globus pallidus might suggest that even in thalassaemic patients iron cannot exceed a saturation level.




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