Would this be a 'human model of iron induced diabetes' ?
"Both pancreatic and cardiac R2* had predictive power for identifying
diabetes"
Pancreatic iron stores assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in
beta thalassemic patients.
de Assis RA, Ribeiro AA, Kay FU, Rosemberg LA, Nomura CH, Loggetto SR,
Araujo AS, Fabron Junior A, de Almeida Veríssimo MP, Baldanzi GR,
Espósito BP, Baroni RH, Wood JC, Hamerschlak N
Eur J Radiol 2011 Apr 16.
PURPOSE:
To assess the correlation between MRI findings of the pancreas with
those of the heart and liver in patients with beta thalassemia; to
compare the pancreas T2* MRI results with glucose and ferritin levels
and labile plasma iron (LPI).
MATERIALS AND METHODS:
We retrospectively evaluated chronically transfused patients, testing
glucose with enzymatic tests, serum ferritin with chemiluminescence,
LPI with cellular fluorescence, and T2* MRI to assess iron content in
the heart, liver, and pancreas. MRI results were compared with one
another and with serum glucose, ferritin, and LPI. Liver iron
concentration (LIC) was determined in 11 patients' liver biopsies by
atomic absorption spectrometry.
RESULTS:
289 MRI studies were available from 115 patients during the period
studied. 9.4% of patients had overt diabetes and an additional 16% of
patients had impaired fasting glucose. Both pancreatic and cardiac R2*
had predictive power (p<0.0001) for identifying diabetes. Cardiac and
pancreatic R2* were modestly correlated with one another (r(2)=0.20,
p<0.0001). Both were weakly correlated with LIC (r(2)=0.09, p<0.0001
for both) and serum ferritin (r(2)=0.14, p<0.0001 and r(2)=0.03,
p<0.02, respectively). None of the three served as a screening tool
for single observations. There is a strong log-log, or power-law,
relationship between ratio of signal intensity (SIR) values and
pancreas R2* with an r(2) of 0.91.
CONCLUSIONS:
Pancreatic iron overload can be assessed by MRI, but siderosis in
other organs did not correlate significantly with pancreatic
hemosiderosis.
European journal of radiology [Eur J Radiol]