Transfusional iron overload: the relationship between tissue iron concentration and hepatic fibrosis in thalassaemia

Abstract

The interrelationships between liver iron concentration, the duration of iron-loading, and hepatic fibrosis, assessed morphometrically, have been studied in 32 specimens of liver obtained from 19 heavily transfused patients with thalassaemia major whose age ranged from 4 to 19 yr. Similar observations were made in a matched group of thalassaemic patients treated with long-term chelation therapy. The degree of liver damage ranged from very slight increase in fibrous tissue to severe fibrosis and cirrhosis. The severity of the fibrosis was closely correlated both with liver iron concentration and with age. While the relationship between fibrosis and age was linear, both the severity and the rate of fibrosis were exponentially related to liver iron concentration, damage accelerating as liver iron concentration exceeded 3 per cent, dry weight. By producing a modest but significant reduction in liver iron concentration chelation therapy resulted in a disproportionate but predictable retardation in the progression of the fibrosis. The factors affecting the distribution of iron between parenchymal and reticuloendothelial cells were also examined. In general stainable iron was uniformly distributed between parenchymal and reticuloendothelial cells from the early stages of iron-loading. Parenchymal siderosis was relatively heavier in splenectomised patients and in patients with liver iron concentrations above 3 per cent, dry weight than in non-splenectomised patients or patients with liver iron levels of less than 3 per cent, dry weight, but this did not affect the severity of the fibrosis. The relevance of these findings to the traditional concepts of the pathology of transfusional siderosis is discussed.