We measure cardiac T2* of our patients, why is it important to measure liver iron concentration (LIC) as well?
Measuring cardiac T2* is important as a number of transfused patients die from cardiac complications. However, patients can decrease the risk of cardiac complications if the total body iron store is accurately monitored. The 3 key reasons why LIC measurement is important are: 1) The LIC value is the best measurement of total body iron stores. [1] 2) Under normal circumstances, the liver is the primary site of iron storage. However, once a certain threshold of liver iron is exceeded, iron begins to accumulate in the heart and other organs. [4] 3) High LIC acts as an early warning sign of possible future cardiac complications as it prospectively predicts cardiac iron loading and cardiac disease. [2,3] FerriScan enables clinicians to determine when chelation therapy is effective and to adjust the therapy accordingly, minimising the risk of iron loading in other organs.
