Effects of blood transfusion on exercise capacity in thalassemia major patients

• Published in: PloS one 2015-05, Vol.10 (5), p.e0127553-e0127553
• Main Authors: Benedetto, Daniela, Rao, Carmelo Massimo, Cefalù, Claudia, Aguglia, Demetrio Oreste, Cattadori, Gaia, D'Ascola, Domenico Giuseppe, Benedetto, Frank Antonio, Agostoni, Piergiuseppe, Sciomer, Susanna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Anaerobic Threshold; Anemia; Beta thalassemia; beta-Thalassemia - blood; beta-Thalassemia - physiopathology; beta-Thalassemia - therapy; Blood; Blood Transfusion; Blood transfusions; Carbon dioxide; Cardiology; Care and treatment; Chronic illnesses; Diabetes; Exercise; Female; Gases; Health aspects; Heart; Heart diseases; Heart failure; Hematology; Hemoglobin; Hemoglobins - metabolism; Humans; Iron; Male; Males; Mechanical ventilation; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Oxygen - blood; Patients; Physical fitness; Physiological aspects; Population; Thalassemia; Transfusion; Vanadium oxides; Ventilation
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127553

Anemia has an important role in exercise performance. However, the direct link between rapid changes of hemoglobin and exercise performance is still unknown.To find out more on this topic, we studied 18 beta-thalassemia major patients free of relevant cardiac dysfunction (age 33.5±7.2 years,males = 10). Patients performed a maximal cardiopulmolmonary exercise test (cycloergometer, personalized ramp protocol, breath-by-breath measurements of expired gases) before and the day after blood transfusion (500 cc of red cell concentrates). After blood transfusion, hemoglobin increased from 10.5±0.8 g/dL to 12.1±1.2 (p