Combinatorial approach to treat iron overload cardiomyopathy in pediatric patients with thalassemia-major: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 1 Summary of the baseline characteristics of the included studies, n (%)

		El-Haggar et al[18], 2018, Egypt	Gupta et al[17], 2021, India	Khaled et al[19], 2019, Egypt
Design		RCT	RCT	RCT
Sample size	Total	40	64	40
	Intervention, male	20 (60)	32 (78)	20 (40)
	Control, male	20 (50)	32 (78)	20 (45)
Age, years	Intervention	10.1 ± 1.4	10.66 ± 3.54	12.50 ± 1.02
	Control	10.7 ± 2.3	10.62 ± 3.99	13.40 ± 1.01
BMI, kg/m2	Intervention	NA	16.15 ± 1.69	19.48 ± 0.72
	Control	NA	16.18 ± 1.49	19.17 ± 0.61
Baseline hemoglobin	Intervention	NA	NA	7.24 ± 0.27
	Control	NA	NA	7.47 ± 0.37
Baseline serum ferritin, ng/mL	Intervention	4067.1 ± 733.2	2527.00 ± 1558.97	2949.85 ± 420.90
	Control	4089.8 ± 1029.9	2307.00 ± 1209.23	2752.20 ± 342.47
Splenectomy	Intervention	13 (65)	12 (38)	3 (15)
	Control	16 (80)	6 (19)	2 (10)
Hepatitis C	Intervention	16 (80)	1 (3.1)	NA
	Control	18 (90)	0	NA
Comparison		Standard iron chelation therapy plus spirulina	Standard iron chelation therapy plus placebo	Standard iron chelation therapy plus placebo
Follow-up duration		3 months	12 months	6 months
Assessment modality	Echocardiography	No	Yes	No
	MRI	Yes	Yes	Yes

RCT: Randomized controlled trial; BMI: Body mass index; NA: Not available; MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging.

Table 2 Summary of the iron chelators used in the studies included in the analysis, n (%)

		El-Haggar et al[18], 2018, Egypt	Gupta et al[17], 2021, India	Khaled et al[19], 2019, Egypt
DFO	Intervention	5 (25)	0	0
	Control	7 (35)	0	0
DFX	Intervention	15 (75)	31 (97)	20 (100)
	Control	13 (65)	31 (97)	20 (100)
DFO and DFP	Intervention	0	1 (3.1)	0
	Control	0	1 (3.1)	0

DFO: Deferoxamine; DFX: Deferasirox; DFP: Deferiprone.