Table II. Patient Characteristics for the baseline abdominal R2^* magnetic resonance imaging cohort.

Parameter	Mean ± SD
N	121
Age at enrollment (years)	9.8 ± 2.9
Sex (% male)	40.0
Body mass index (kg/m2)	17.8 ± 3.8
Time on transfusion (years)	4.1 ± 2.4
On chelation therapy (%)	95.3%
Years on chelation (years)	3.1 ± 2.1
Haemoglobin (g/l)*	78 ± 8.0
HbS %	28.5 ± 9.9
Absolute reticulocyte count (×109/l)	354 ± 123
Serum ferritin (μg/l)	2696 ± 1678
Serum iron (μmol/l)	26.2± 10.8
Total iron binding capacity (μmol/l)	66.1 ± 40.6
Transferrin saturation (%)	47.2 ± 23.6
Lactate dehydrogenase (u/l)	599 ± 213
C-reactive protein (mg/l)	4.8 ± 8.4
Alanine transaminase (u/l)	48.0 ± 42.2
Creatinine (μmol/l)	35.4 ± 13.3
Bilirubin (μmol/l)	47.9 ± 30.8

^*Pre-transfusion haemoglobin in the past 6 months