الفهرس 
?-Thalassmia majorOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The main causes of liver injury in thalassemic patients are hepatic iron overload and viral hepatitis infection, both secondary to the regular transfusion regimen which is the main way of treatment.
80 thalassemia major patients, recruited from the Pediatric Hematology Clinic in New Children Hospital were studied with respect to age, number of blood transfusion per year, liver enzymes, ferritin, transferrin saturation, HBsAg, anti-HCV antibody and HCV-PCR for anti-HCV positive patients.
None of the patients was HBsAg positive. 40 patients (50%) were anti-HCV positive and only 22 (55%) of the anti-HCV positive patients were HCV-PCR positive.
Patients with elevated ALT and AST had significantly higher mean serum ferritin than those with normal ALT and AST (p=0.007, p=0.004).
Anti-HCV positive patients had higher mean serum ferritin, serum ALT, AST and GGT levels and higher age and duration of blood transfusion than the negative group. (p=0.015, 0.006, 0.019, 0.037,p<0.001 and p=0.002). Also, HCV-PCR positive patients had higher mean serum ferritin and serum ALT and also higher age and duration of blood transfusion than the negative group (p=0.001, p=0.007, p=0.001 and p=0.001).
We concluded that iron overload is a main leading cause of elevated liver enzymes,the risk of transfusion-associated hepatitis hasbeen reduced and presence of HCV infection is significantly related to the increased iron overload.
Key Words: thalassemia- viral hepatitis- iron overload- liver enzymes.
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