Myocardial iron intake following intravenous iron therapy with ferric carboxymaltose is sustained at 1 year despite recurrence of iron deficiency.

In clinical practice, intravenous (IV) iron therapy is used for the correction of iron deficiency. Patients with chronic causes of iron deficiency, for example, women with abnormal uterine bleeding, patients with inflammatory bowel disease often require repeated dosing with IV iron therapy. After a single standard dose of IV iron therapy (1000 mg) with ferric carboxymaltose, there is a rapid intake of iron into the myocardium, resulting in a sustained increase in myocardial iron content. The increase in myocardial iron content is independent of changes in plasma ferritin levels, and the recurrence of iron deficiency is not accompanied by a normalisation of myocardial iron. The most important implication is that repeated dosing with IV iron (ferric carboxymaltose) can result in cumulative build-up of iron in the myocardium.