Spirometry and Cardiopulmonary Exercise Performance in Patients with Thalassemia Major (2)
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- Category: Vol. 77, September 2009
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Spirometry and Cardiopulmonary Exercise Performance in Patients with Thalassemia Major, MONA EL-TAGUI, KHALED SALAMA, HASSAN M. SALAMA, MONA M. MAHMOUD, HOSSAM H. MASSOUD, MOHAMAD EL-BATANONY and AZZA ABDEL MEGIUD
Abstract
Background: Lung function abnormalities in patients with thalassemia major are various, complex and of different etiological backgrounds.
Methods: To evaluate the pulmonary function changes during both rest and integrated cardiopulmonary exercise in patients with thalassemia major, we studied 30 thalassemia major cases with mean age of 18±13.34 years. Nineteen healthy subjects were enrolled as a control group. Routine laboratory tests as well as assessment of pulmonary function test during both rest and integrated cardiopulmonary exercise were performed for cases and controls.
Results: Both forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory flow in the first second (FEV 1) were significantly reduced in cases than in controls (p<0.01 for both), pointing to a restrictive pulmonary dysfunction. Seventy percent of cases had FVC below the normal predicted value. Functional capacity, anaerobic threshold and O2 pulse were significantly reduced in cases than controls (p<0.05). There is a statistically significant inverse correlation between serum ferritin levels and functional capacity.
Conclusions: In the studied thalassemics, restrictive pattern of pulmonary dysfunction is the predominant abnor-mality. Poor cardiopulmonary exercise performance occurs and is multifactorial.