Left Ventricular Volumes, Mass and Function normalized to the body surface area, age and gender from CMR in a large cohort of well-treated Thalassemia Major patients without myocardial iron overload

Abstract

Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (CMR) allows an accurate and reproducible quantification of left ventricular (LV) parameters. In Thalassemia major (TM) patients have been reported different “normal” LV values due to chronic anemia and eventually pre-existing iron burdens. Moreover, in this population it is unknown the influence of sex and age on LV parameters and no ranges of normal have been reported using MASS® software. The aim of this study was to establish the ranges for normal LV volumes, mass and ejection fraction normalized to the influence of body surface area(BSA), age and sex from CMR in a large cohort of well-treated TM patients without myocardial iron overload.