Endocrine Complications Among Multi Transfused Thalassemia Patients

Abstract

Objective: To determine the endocrine complications in multi-transfused thalassemia patients attending outpatient department (OPD) of Hussaini blood bank, Karachi, Pakistan.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in Thalassemia Centre of Husaini blood bank, Karachi from September 2017 to December 2017. A pre-structured questionnaire was used to collect the information regarding the complications like visual, dental, renal, and hearing problems, dryness, muscles fatigue, shiny skin, polydipsia, polyuria, polyphagia, weight loss, and frequent infections.

Results: A total of 40 thalassemia patients were included in the study. The most common endocrine complication was muscle fatigue (n=29, 72.5%) followed by weight loss (n=23, 57.5%), polydipsia (n= 22, 55%), frequent infection (n=19, 47.5%), polyphagia (n=18, 45%) and polyuria (n= 18, 45%). There were 20 non-diabetic and 20 diabetic patients. A significantly higher association of diabetes was observed with age (p-value 0.002), weight (p-value 0.005), and FBS level (p-value 0.003) whereas complications like polydipsia (p-value 0.011), polyuria (p-value <0.001), and weight loss (p-value 0.004) were also found significantly higher among multitransfused patients with diabetes as compared to the multi-transfused patients without diabetes.

Conclusion: The finding of this study showed that muscle fatigue, weight loss, and polydipsia were most common endocrine complication. However, when compared according to the diabetes status, polydipsia, polyuria, and weight loss were significant complications in multi-transfused patients with diabetes.