Effects of desferrioxamine in patients with iron-loading with a simple method for estimating urinary iron.

Desferrioxamine produced marked increases in urinary iron excretion in three patients with very gross iron loading. The magnitude of the response to desferrioxamine was not closely related to the amount of iron seen in liver biopsy sections. In two patients with less severe iron loading, desferrioxamine produced no significant increase in urinary iron content. In the patients who responded, the effect of desferrioxamine did not diminish with repeated doses even over periods of up to a year.The effectiveness of desferrioxamine was not increased by intravenous administration, water diuresis, mersalyl, or ammonium chloride.A simple method for estimation of urinary iron is described, necessitating a minimum of glassware, and sufficiently accurate for clinical purposes.