Level of urinary biomarker, insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) for the assessment of renal injury in β-thalassemia patients

Background Transfusion-dependent thalassemia patients in recent years have suffered from many morbidities such as renal dysfunction. In patients with thalassemia, the main causes of renal impairment include chronic anemia, iron overload from recurrent transfusions, and certain iron chelators. Renal impairment can be decreased by delaying the progression of kidney damage through early detection of this morbidity, so novel biomarkers have been studied in those patients. Objectives This study aimed to assess urinary insulin-like growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) level in β-thalassemia patients for early detection of renal complications. Patients and methods A case–control study enrolled 90 participants (50 β-thalassemia patients and 40 healthy individuals, attending University Hospital for the follow-up). Urine and blood samples were collected from all the study participants to assess renal injury and to determine urinary IGFBP7 levels using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. Results Urinary IGFBP7 and IGFBP7/creatinine ratio did not show any statistically significant differences between β-thalassemia patients and healthy individuals ( P =0.75, 65% sensitivity, 55% specificity, and an area under the curve of 0.45). Also, the study showed no statistically significanct correlation between urinary IGFBP7 and other renal markers. Conclusion Our findings indicate that urinary IGFBP7 levels cannot be considered a biomarker for chronic renal injury among tβ-thalassemia patients.