What does liver hemochromatosis point to?

summary

I once saw a patient with hemochromatosis in the TV series "Yuhai Yixin". Hemochromatosis, also known as hereditary hemochromatosis, is a common chronic iron overload disease. Due to the improper increase of intestinal iron absorption, excessive iron is stored in the liver, heart, pancreas and other substantive cells, resulting in organ metabolism and dysfunction. The main clinical symptoms were skin pigmentation, liver cirrhosis and secondary diabetes.

What does liver hemochromatosis point to?

1. Etiology: it is mostly due to excessive iron in diet, massive blood transfusion (red blood cells in the blood contain a lot of iron) or systemic diseases, resulting in excessive iron content in the body, and excessive iron will damage the adrenal cortex, eventually leading to excessive secretion of melanin by melanocytes and pigmentation of skin and mucous membrane.

2. Treatment: at present, there is no effective radical treatment, the first thing is to control the source of iron in diet and reduce the amount of iron intake. Secondly, intravenous bloodletting therapy can be used to reduce the content of iron in the body and reduce the symptoms of visceral function decline caused by iron accumulation. Heart function, liver function, portal hypertension, skin pigmentation and endocrine function can be significantly improved, but diabetes and sexual dysfunction can not be restored. In addition, iron chelating agent can be used to reduce the iron content in the body. The most commonly used is deferoxamine, intravenous, intramuscular or subcutaneous injection.

3. Prevention: can be done regularly, transferrin saturation, CT, serum ferritin test is to check whether there is iron deposition in the body. Avoid alcohol and high iron food, should actively treat primary diseases, for secondary diabetes, heart failure, liver cirrhosis, decreased sexual desire, should be corresponding symptomatic treatment.

matters needing attention

1. Diet should avoid iron intake, mainly light and nutritious, nutrition should be balanced, avoid spicy food. 2. It is helpful for the control of hemochromatosis to keep the body and mind happy. 3. Exercise more, because hemochromatosis often complicated with diabetes, so pay attention to monitoring blood sugar.