الفهرس 
Anatomy of PancreasOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Thalassemic patients affected by systemic iron overload, often
die owing to iron induced failure of vital organs such as heart and liver.
Impairment of the endocrine and exocrine function of the pancreas is a
common complication in patients with beta-thalassemia major . The
incidence of impaired glucose tolerance and diabetes in thalassemia
major patients varied from 9% to 15% depending on the age of
assessment, the intensity of chelation, transfusion and related patient
compliance. The etiology of diabetes in β-thalassemia is increased
peripheral resistance to insulin and direct toxic effect of excess iron in
the acinar and beta cells of pancreas resulting in insulin deficiency.
Structural abnormalities of the pancreas have been described on
sonography.
Magnetic resonance imaging has emerged for the non-invasive
quantification of hepatic iron; it represents a reliable method for
assessing iron overload in various tissues, not easily accessible with
other techniques. Despite extensive research on MRI of hepatic and
cardiac iron overload, there have been limited data on the MRI of
pancreas in patients with β-thalassemia major. Moreover, the relation
between pancreatic and hepatic siderosis and, between MRI of the
pancreas and diabetes has not been documented in medical literature.
Very few studies have evaluated the effect of age on pancreatic
siderosis and compared MRI data from younger and older patients with
thalassemia.