Sustained improvements in myocardial T2 over 2 years in severely iron‐overloaded patients with beta thalassemia major treated with deferasirox or deferoxamine

Long‐term controlled studies are needed to inform on the clinical benefit of chelation therapy for myocardial iron removal in transfusion‐dependent beta thalassemia patients. In a 1‐year nonrandomized extension to the CORDELIA study, data collected from patients with myocardial siderosis provided additional information on deferasirox or deferoxamine (DFO) efficacy and safety. Myocardial (m)T2* increased from baseline 11.6 to 15.9 ms in patients receiving deferasirox for 24 months (n = 74; geometric mean [Gmean] ratio of month 24/baseline 1.38 [95% confidence interval 1.28, 1.49]) and from 10.8 to 14.2 ms in those receiving DFO (n = 29; Gmean ratio 1.33 [1.13, 1.55]; P = 0.93 between groups). Improved mT2* with deferasirox was evident across all subgroups evaluated irrespective of baseline myocardial (mT2* < 10 vs. ≥ 10 ms) or liver (LIC