Getting the iron out. (Anemia).While transfusions are lifesavers for many anemia patients, they introduce excess iron into recipients. This overload can damage the liver, pancreas, and heart. A new pill that reverses this process may vastly improve the lives of anemia patients, a new study shows. The standard drug for removing iron from the body is deferoxamine mesylate. It chemically captures, or chelates, excess iron but must be given intravenously or by injection. The chief problem with deferoxamine mesylate therapy is that patients sometimes skip treatments, notes Stanley L. Schrier of Stanford University Stanford University, at Stanford, Calif.; coeducational; chartered 1885, opened 1891 as Leland Stanford Junior Univ. (still the legal name). The original campus was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. David Starr Jordan was its first president. . A pill-based alternative would presumably pre·sum·a·ble adj. That can be presumed or taken for granted; reasonable as a supposition: presumable causes of the disaster. be easier for patients to follow. The new medication, now designated as ICL (International Computers Ltd., London) The former name of Fujitsu Services, the European-centered arm of the global Fujitsu Group and one of the leading IT services companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 670, binds to excess iron, and these complexes ultimately leave the body in the feces. Researchers in Italy compared deferoxamine mesylate with ICL670 in 71 patients with an average age of 25. The participants had a hereditary form of anemia called thalassemia Thalassemia Definition Thalassemia describes a group of inherited disorders characterized by reduced or absent amounts of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein inside the red blood cells. that required them to get transfusions every 3 weeks. They had been receiving deferoxamine mesylate via a needle drip placed under the skin for 8 hours a night, 5 nights a week. Periodic testing of iron content in the patients' blood and liver over a year showed that ICL670 cleared transfusion-caused iron overload Iron overload A side effect of frequent blood transfusions in which the body accumulates abnormally high levels of iron. Iron deposits can form in organs, particularly the heart, and cause life-threatening damage. as well as deferoxamine mesylate did, says study coauthor Antonio Piga of Turin University. If the work is confirmed, ICL670 "would represent a major clinical advance for patients with sickle-cell [anemia]" and others who need regular blood transfusions, says Ronald Hoffman of the University of Illinois University of Illinois may refer to:
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