Patients with hereditary hemochromatosis reach safe range of transferrin saturation sooner with erythrocytaphereses than with phlebotomies.

For the maintenance treatment of patients with hereditary hemochromatosis (HH), it is advised to keep the transferrin saturation (TSAT) <70% to prevent formation of non-transferrin-bound iron and labile plasma iron. The period of the initial iron depletion may last up to 1 year or longer and during this period, the patient is exposed to elevated TSAT levels. Therapeutic erythrocytapheresis (TE) is a modality which has proven to reduce treatment duration of patients with iron overload from HH. In this study, we investigated the time to reach TSAT <70% for both treatment modalities. From a previous randomized controlled trial comparing erythrocytaphereses with phlebotomies (PBMs), we performed an analysis in a subgroup of patients who presented with TSAT >70%. Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to compare the number of treatments and the number of weeks to reach the interim goal of a persistent level of <70% for TSAT between TE and PBM. The period to reach TSAT levels of <70% was statistically significant shorter for the TE group compared to the PBM treatment group (median treatment procedures [IQR] 2.0 (5) vs 16.0 (23), P-value: <.001, and median treatment duration [IQR]: 5.5 (11) vs 19.0 (29) weeks, P-value: .007). Patients with HH reach a safe TSAT <70% significantly sooner and with less treatment procedures with TE compared to PBM. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Apheresis published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Citation

Eva Rombout-Sestrienkova, Lloyd Brandts, Ger H Koek, Cees Th B M van Deursen. Patients with hereditary hemochromatosis reach safe range of transferrin saturation sooner with erythrocytaphereses than with phlebotomies. Journal of clinical apheresis. 2022 Feb;37(1):100-105

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PMID: 34897777

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