High-dose intravenous desferrioxamine (DFO) delivery in four thalassemic patients allergic to subcutaneous DFO administration
✍ Scribed by Lombardo, Turiddu; Ferro, Gabriella; Frontini, Viviana; Percolla, Sebastiano
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 293 KB
- Volume
- 51
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0361-8609
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
To test the hypothesis that allergy to desferrloxamlne is not an immunologic mechanlsm, but arlses from a local effect on the dermal mast cell, we have treated four patients who were not receiving chelation therapy because of hypersensitivity to standard subcutaneous (SC) therapy, with highdose desferrioxamine (DFO) by the Intravenous (IV) route. Three patients had central venous access ports implanted on the anterior chest wall. The fourth patlent had the therapy delivered by the peripheral vein route. All patients had the drug delivered via an elastomerlc infusor. Intravenous therapy was successful for all patients. During one year of therapy no local or systemic allergic manifestations were noted. In additlon, no impairment of hearing or vislon or any catheter complications were reported. A very high level of patient compliance to the therapy resulted in dramatically decreased iron stores and ferritln levels (2,759 nglml to 717.5 nglml) and a signiflcant improvement in the clinical status of all patients. The absence of allergic episodes in this patient group after 1 year of IV therapy would strongly support the hypothesls that SC DFO allergy Is related to a direct effect on dermal mast cells and Is not an immunological reaction. This study suggests that patients with severe allergy to SC DFO can therefore safely receive their chelation therapy via the IV route.