Transfusional hemosiderosis in sickle cell anemia: another cause of an echogenic pancreas.

Overview

We report four sickle cell anemia patients who have received multiple blood transfusions and have been non-compliant on Desferal chelation therapy. Abdominal ultrasonography demonstrated an echogenic pancreas in all four patients. Magnetic resonance imaging in three patients revealed decreased signal intensity in all sequences in the pancreas and liver. All four patients had marked iron deposition on liver biopsy. To our knowledge, increased echogenicity of the pancreas secondary to hemosiderosis (2 degrees hemochromatosis) in sickle cell patients has not been reported in the radiologic literature.