Does Ferriprox® exacerbate hepatic fibrosis?
In 1998, an article by Olivieri et al. was published implying that deferiprone exacerbated liver fibrosis in thalassaemia patients. An independent and objective review on the same randomized and blinded histology slides did not find an exacerbation of liver fibrosis by deferiprone (Callea, 1998). Studies by Piga et al., Hoffbrand et al., Tondury et al., Berdoukas et al, Peng et al, and Maggio et al. which studied sequential liver biopsies in patients with thalassaemia major who have been regularly transfused with deferiprone or deferoxamine, indicated that therapy with deferiprone does not exacerbate liver fibrosis in thalassaemia patients. The increase in fibrosis score observed in some patients in either treatment group was most likely related to hepatitis C infection (which can, itself, cause fibrosis) and/or high concentrations of hepatic iron over a long period of time. A carefully controlled blinded study evaluated liver biopsy samples of 56 patients treated with Ferriprox® for a
