Correlation of Transferrin Saturation and Serum Ferritin with Bone Mass Density in Adult Transfusion Dependent Beta-Thalassemia Patients

Figures & data

Table 1 General Characteristics of Research Subjects

General Characteristics	N = 60
Gender, n (%)
Male	27 (45%)
Female	33 (55%)
Classification of Thalassemia
Thalassemia major (TM)	19 (32%)
Thalassemia intermedia (TI)	41 (68%)
Classification of thalassemia
Thalassemia Beta Thalassemia	26 (43%)
Beta/HBE	34 (57%)
Iron status
Ferritin (ng/mL), median (min-max)	3881 (645–15,437)
Transferrin saturation, median (min-max)	86 (20–120)
Anthropometry
Weight (kg), median (min-max)	43 (25–85)
Height (cm), median (min-max)	154 (123–170)
Short stature, N (%)	28 (47%)
Facies Cooley, N (%)	32 (53%)
BMD Z score, median (min-max)	−1.1 (−5.7 to 2.6)
Laboratory values
Pre-transfusion hemoglobin (mg/dL), mean (SD)	8.08 (1.09)
hsCRP (mg/L), mean (SD)	3.15 (0.34–4.4)
Magnesium (mEq/L), mean (SD)	2.02 (0.24)
Sodium (mEq/L), mean (SD)	137.38 (4.30)
Potassium (mEq/L), mean (SD)	4.06 (0.42)
Chloride (mEq/L), median (min-max)	99 (89–114)
Calcium (mg/dL), mean (SD)	8.91 (0.49)
Phosphate (mg/dL), median (min-max)	4 (2.2–6.20)
Transferrin saturation (%), median (min-max)	86 (20–112)
Serum ferritin (ng/mL), median (min-max)	3881 (645–15,437)
Femoral Singh Index, median (min-max)	5 (1–6)

Abbreviations: BMD, bone mass density; SD, standard Ddeviation; hsCRP, high-sensitive C-reactive protein.

Table 2 Correlation of Transferrin Saturation, Serum Ferritin and Singh Index with Bone Mass Density

Variables	r	p*
Transferrin saturation – BMD	−0.329	0.010
Serum Ferritin – BMD	−0.088	0.504
Femoral Singh Index – BMD	0.273	0.038

Note: *Spearman correlation test.

Abbreviation: BMD, bone mass density.

Figure 1 Transferrin saturation values receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve for prediction of future occurrence of low bone density in adult thalassemia patients.

Figure 2 Cutoff point of transferrin saturation in distinguishing incidence of low bone density in adult patients with thalassemia.