β-thalassemia major is a genetic disease that causes sever defect in normal hemoglobin synthesis. The patients with β-thalassemia major need periodic blood transfusions that can result in accumulation of body iron, so treatment with iron chelating agent is required. Complications of this iron overload affecting many vital organs, including the liver. The aim of this work was to evaluate liver enzymes in β -thalassemia major patients with deferasirox versus without it. Two groups of β-thalassemia major patients were involved in this study named group A; 40 β-thalassemia patients of blood transfusion dependent without deferasirox, group B; 40 β-thalassemia patients of blood transfusion dependent on deferasirox. In addition to group C, 40 normal subjects as a control group. Samples of serum were obtained from all participants to be tested for alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline phosphatase and ferritin. The biochemical data of the patients on blood transfusion without deferasirox showed significant increases in the mean serum levels of aminotransferases and ferritin in comparison with control. Whereas the patients on blood transfusion with deferasirox exhibit significant increases in the means serum levels of alkaline phosphatase activity and ferritin in comparison with control. Iron overload may cause liver injury, shown by significant increases of; ALT and AST activities and elevated ferritin level in serum of transfusion dependent patients of β-thalassemia major. Administration of deferasirox for β-thalassemia major patients causes elevation of serum ALP activity and ferritin level.

This study was to evaluate and compare thyroid function tests and serum levels of ferritin in splenectomised and non-splenectomised β-thalassemic patients. This study is a case control study that was conducted in the Thalassemia Center in Ibn Al-Atheer Teaching Hospital in Nineveh Province/ Iraq during March-June 2014. Fifty patients of homozygous β-thalassemia major (TM) and twenty five apparently healthy controls were included in this study. The patients were divided into splenectomised and non-splenectomised patients (each 25 patients). Medical history and blood samples were collected from all participants and serum levels of Thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), Thyroxine (T4), Free thyroxine (FT4), Triiodothyronie (T3), Free triiodothyronine (FT3), and ferritin in addition to body mass index (BMI) were measured. There were significant decreases in BMI and serum FT4, while there were significant increases in serum TSH and ferritin in β-thalassemia major (in which 10% were diagnosed with hypothyroidism) in comparison with control participants. No significant differences were found between splenectomised and non-splenectomised patients in all parameters measured except a significant positive correlation between serum ferritin and TSH and a significant negative correlation between serum ferritin and T4 that reflects 16% hypothyroidism in splenectomised patients. In addition, significant increases were found in serum TSH and ferritin and a significant decrease in serum FT4 in splenectomised patients when compared with the control. Moreover, a comparison of non-splenectomised patients with control group showed no significant difference in all parameters measured except a significant increase in serum ferritin level. In conclusion, there were certain significant differences in thyroid function tests between β-thalassemia major patients and the controls, whereas there were no significant differences in the means of all studied parameters between splenectomised and non- splenectomised patients except for the positive significant correlation of serum ferritin with TSH level in splenectomised patients which reflect the hypothyroidism in splenectomised TM patients.

Objectives:To study the effects of atenolol and captopril on lipid profile parameters including total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG), High density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c), Low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-c) and atherogenic index (AI) in serum. Moreover to compare the effects of these drugs on the above parameters with each other. Patients and Methods: One hundred hypertensive patients were involved in this study which were divided into two groups each of 50 patients. Patients in the first group were on atenolol and the patients in the second group were on captopril. All of the cases of hypertension were of the primary type (essential) as the patients were diagnosed by specialist physicians. The patients included were not chronically using any other drugs, nor having family history of hyperlipidemia, and not suffering from any other chronic disease. The ages of the patients in the first group ranged from 35-74 years with a mean of 55±5.02 years, while the ages of the second group ranged from 36-80 years with a mean of 57±6.0 years. Another group of 50 normal individuals participated in this study as a control group, with ages ranged from 35-72 years with a mean of 53±4.4 years. Results:The results of this study showed that serum TG and AI were significantly higher in atenolol using group in comparison with the control group, while serum HDL-c concentration was significantly lower. Whereas, the remaining lipid profile parameters studied were not significantly different from the control group. Serum LDL-c concentration was significantly low in captopril using group compared with the control group whereas the remaining lipid parameters studied were not significantly changed in this group. Further analysis of the results of the present study indicated significant decreases of serum TG and AI in captopril using group in comparison with Atenolol using group. Whereas, serum HDL-c concentration was significantly higher in captopril using group. Conclusion: The overall analysis of the lipid profile parameters studied might suggest that atenolol has certain undesirable effects on these parameters while captopril has less undesirable effects. This might indicate that captopril seems to be more suitable antihypertensive agent than atenolol for patients with lipid profile abnormalities.