Anemia Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Anemia, including details on symptoms, diagnosis, diet, treatment, causes.

Long-term alpha interferon treatment is effective on anaemia and significantly reduces iron overload in congenital dyserythropoiesis type I.

Lavabre-Bertrand T, Ramos J, Delfour C, Henry L, Guiraud I, Carillo S, Wagner A, Bureau JP, Blanc P

Laboratoire d'Histologie-Embryologie-Cytogénétique, Faculté de Médecine de Montpellier-Nîmes et Laboratoire de Cytologie Clinique et Cytogénétique, C.H.U. de Nîmes, France. tlavabre@univ-montp1.fr

Interferon has been shown to be an effective treatment of congenital dyserythropoiesis type I (CDA-I), but the optimal dose and the feasibility of this treatment remains to be determined. Here, in a 9-yr follow-up of a single patient, we show that interferon remains active during such a long period. The optimal dose of conventional alpha interferon could be evaluated at 2 million units twice a week. Pegylated interferon could be used as well at a dose of 30 microg/wk. During interferon treatment, serum and erythrocyte ferritin levels decreased progressively, and remained inversely correlated with haemoglobin levels. On repeated liver biopsies, iron overload could be normalized. Low dose interferon is a long-term treatment of CDA-I, and allows a significant decrease in iron overload, that could be interesting even in patients who are only moderately anaemic.

Published 1 October 2004 in Eur J Haematol, 73(5): 380-3.
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