change form exjade to ferriprox

dear andy,

last month , my daughter , 6 years old, 22 kg, ferritin is 1259, but she has fever , and stop for 2 days. After 7 days from fever, she got blood transfution, and check the ferritin, ferritin become 1745.

now, i already switch the exjade to ferriprox 500mg , with dosage 1.5 tablet each time, for 3 time a day. But the urine become yellow and red, like have a blood in that. Is is normal ? and my dossage is right ?

fyi, in this year we gonna plan transplant in thailand, so doctor in there, suggest us to maintain hb at 10,and ferritin at level 1000.


thanks
lucky

lucky,

The illness will raise the ferritin. It does not mean there is more iron. It is just the natural defense by the body to take iron and store it in ferritin so viruses and bacteria don't have so much iron to use to grow. Don't be alarmed when you see the ferritin rise during illness. Whenever there is fever, chelation must be stopped. This is usually only a few days and won't have a big affect on iron level. Once fever passes, the chelator can be started again.

What you are seeing in the urine is iron being removed by the Ferriprox. Exjade removes iron through feces, so you don't see the color in the urine, as you do with Ferriprox and desferal. The red and orange color is iron.

If a transplant is planned, the child's health should be very good with a low iron load. Follow the doctor's advice.

Dear andy,

thanks for your fast response, one more things, do i give right dosage of feriprox to my daughter ? our feriprox is 500mg, i give her 1.5 tablet each time, for 3 time a day, so total 4,5 tablet or 2250mg per day, every 8 hours. So is almost 102 mg/kg/day, beyond the guideline recomendation is 99 mg/kg/day. Should i continue with this dosage or lower the dosage ? cause i want to push ferrtin lower.

thanks
lucky

Gabriel ,
i think you shouldn't break the tablet, u can give it 2-1-2  way if u want to give her 5 tablets a day .. i cant say anything about the dose so wait for andy to reply ... splitting coated tablets may cause any probleme ...

andy ,
please correct me if i m wrong ..  thank u . .

Lucky,

The current dose is at the maximum but there really is no good reason to be at the maximum dose. The normal dose for Ferriprox is 75 mg/kg, which is 1650 mg daily. I know you want the ferritin to drop faster. but there is no reason to give more than 2000 mg daily.