Relationship of Baseline Hemoglobin Level with Serum Ferritin, Postphlebotomy Hemoglobin Changes, and Phlebotomy Requirements among HFE C282Y Homozygotes

الملخص EN

Objectives.

We aimed to examine whether baseline hemoglobin levels in C282Y-homozygous patients are related to the degree of serum ferritin (SF) elevation and whether patients with different baseline hemoglobin have different phlebotomy requirements.

Methods.

A total of 196 patients (124 males and 72 females) who had undergone therapeutic phlebotomy and had SF and both pre- and posttreatment hemoglobin values were included in the study.

Results.

Bivariate correlation analysis suggested that baseline SF explains approximately 6 to 7% of the variation in baseline hemoglobin.

The results also showed that males who had higher (≥150 g/L) baseline hemoglobin levels had a significantly greater reduction in their posttreatment hemoglobin despite requiring fewer phlebotomies to achieve iron depletion than those who had lower (<150 g/L) baseline hemoglobin, regardless of whether baseline SF was below or above 1000 µg/L.

There were no significant differences between hemoglobin subgroups regarding baseline and treatment characteristics, except for transferrin saturation between male subgroups with SF above 1000 µg/L.

Similar differences were observed when females with higher (≥138 g/L) baseline hemoglobin were compared with those with lower (<138 g/L) baseline hemoglobin.

Conclusion.

Dividing C282Y-homozygous patients into just two subgroups according to the degree of baseline SF elevation may obscure important subgroup variations.