We report the case of a 25-years-old male with beta-thalassemia major who developed acute heart failure, with severe systolic dysfunction, resulting from iron overload. Combined iron chelation with desferrioxamine and deferiprone together with standard cardiological treatment induced prompt and complete restoration of the cardiac function.

Haemochromatotic cardiomyopathy is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with beta thalassaemia major. Once congestive heart failure develops most patients die in a few months. Congestive heart failure was reversed and echocardiographic findings were restored to normal in a 24 year old woman with beta thalassaemia who resumed treatment with chelation therapy (desferrioxamine).

Six hundred nineteen strains of nonfermenting gram-negative rods were tested for alkaline phosphatase, benzyl-arginine arylamidase, pyrrolidonyl arylamidase, ethylene glycol acidification, and susceptibility to desferrioxamine and colistin. The results were highly discriminant. Therefore, the proposed tests may be helpful for the identification of this group of organisms.

The oxidation of ethanol by a reconstituted system containing NADPH-cytochrome P-450 reductase and cytochrome P-450 from phenobarbital-treated rats was characterized especially with regard to the role of oxygen radicals in the mechanism of ethanol oxidation. Results described in the preceding manuscript demonstrated that a strong oxidizing species with properties similar to that of the hydroxyl...

The relationship between mitochondrial Ca2+, oxidative stress, and a dissipation of the mitochondrial membrane potential (A+) was investigated in proximal tubular kidney cells. Freshly isolated proximal tubular cells from rat kidney were exposed to the nephrotoxin 1,2dichlorovinyl-L-cysteine (DCVC). DCVC stimulated the formation of hydroperoxides as determined by flow cytometry using the hydrop...

BACKGROUND Plasma non-transferrin bound iron refers to heterogeneous plasma iron species, not bound to transferrin, which appear in conditions of iron overload and ineffective erythropoiesis. The clinical utility of non-transferrin bound iron in predicting complications from iron overload, or response to chelation therapy remains unproven. We undertook carefully timed measurements of non-transf...