Diagnosis and current treatments for primary iron overload.
Primary iron overload encompasses a variety of genetic iron overload syndromes, dominated in frequency by HFE-related, or Type 1 hemochromatosis, for which French diagnostic and therapeutic guidelines have been recently proposed. Differential diagnosis of Type 1 hemochromatosis can be made from both clinical data and genetic studies. Venesection therapy and family screening remain the basis for the curative and preventive management of most genetic iron overload diseases.