To shed more light on the relationship between ischemic heart disease
and iron, serum iron parameters (iron, ferritin and transferrin) were estimated
in fifty ischemic heart patients (15 stable angina, 15 crescendo an
gina and 20 acute Myocardiai Infarction, MI). Their ages ranged 43 – 58
years. Ten healthy subjects, matched with patients for age and sex.
served as control group. Echocardiographic studies (ejection fraction (EF)
and end systolic volume (ESV) together with peak serum creatine phosphokinase
(CPK) were done for each case of infarction to correlate these
variables with the corresponding serum iron parameters.
Compared to controls, ischemic heart patients had highly signi/icon:
increase of serum iron (103.5 ± 25.6 vs 79.6 ± 19.2, p<0.0l) and serum
ferritin (94.7 ± 54.2 vs 44.4 ± 11.0, p<0.01) whereas they showed insignificant
increase of serum transferrin (273.8 ± 83.8 vs 244.1 ± 56.4,
p>0.05). Subgroup analysis showed that there was statistically signif
icant increase in serum iron and ferritin but not transferrin in patients
with stable and unstable angina while in cases with acute MI, there was
significant increase in oil serum iron parameters. Correlation studies
showed that serum iron and ferritin but not transferrin were strongly correlated
with peak CPK, EF and ESV. Patients with acute MI who had
complicated in-hospital course showed significant higher value of serum
iron, ferritin, transferrin, CPK and ESV but they had a significant lower
EF than non-complicated cases.
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Osama S. Arafa et al...
In conclusion, serum iron andferritin were significantly higher in ischemia
heart patients while serum transferrin was significantly higher
only in patients with acute ML In the infarction group, the higher the ser -
um iron and ferritin, the larger is the size of infarction, the worser is the
in-hospital course and the more impaired is the systolic function. Thus,
the present study might give a new meaning for the emerging role of iron
in ischemic heart disease. |
