Baseline levels of plasma endothelin-1 (ET-1) and changes during transfusion in thalassemic patients

We studied levels of plasma endothelin-1 (ET-1) in 25 beta-thalassemia/Hb E patients before and after blood transfusion. Baseline ET-1 levels in these patients were significantly higher than in normal controls (110.17 +/-t 2.1 pg/mL vs. 8.9 +/- 2.0 pg/mL, P < 0.05). After blood transfusion, levels of plasma ET-1 tend to slightly increase during the first 24 hr but significantly decline at the 7(th) day to levels (8.01 +/- 1.7 pg/mL) which do not differ from those of controls. This study highlights a different alteration of plasma ET-1 in patients with beta-thalassemia compared to that of patients with sickle-cell anemia. Am. J. Hematol. 70:260-262, 2002. (C) 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.