Iron overload following bone marrow transplantation in children: MR findings

The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of post-transfusional iron overload in children after bone marrow transplantation by reviewing their magnetic resonance imaging (MR) findings.

We reviewed the abdominal MR studies of 13 children after autologous bone marrow transplantation. Nine of the children had also undergone MR prior to transplantation. Iron deposition in the liver, spleen and bone marrow was graded semi-quantitatively on both T1- and T2-weighted images. Serum ferritin levels and number of blood units given after bone marrow transplantation were recorded.

None of the pre-transplantation MR studies revealed iron overload. After bone marrow transplantation, three children showed normal liver and spleen. Iron overload in the liver was noted in ten patients (77 %), six of whom also showed iron overload in the spleen (46 %) and five in the bone marrow (38.5 %). The degree of hepatic iron overload was correlated significantly and splenic iron overload was correlated weakly with the number of blood transfusions (P = 0.01 and P > 0.01, respectively), but neither was correlated with the serum ferritin level.

Iron overload commonly accompanies bone marrow transplantation. The observed pattern of iron deposition, in which the spleen was uninvolved in 40 % of patients demonstrating iron overload, is not typical of post-transfusional hemochromatosis.