Iron overload or haemochromatosis (also spelled hemochromatosis in American English) indicates increased total accumulation of iron in the body from any cause and resulting organ damage. The most important causes are hereditary haemochromatosis (HH or HHC), a genetic disorder, and transfusional iron overload, which can result from repeated blood transfusions. Signs and symptoms
Organs most commonly affected by haemochromatosis include the liver, heart, and endocrine glands.Haemochromatosis may present with the following clinical syndromes:

liver: chronic liver disease and cirrhosis of the liver. heart: heart failure, cardiac arrhythmia. hormones: diabetes (see below) and hypogonadism (insufficiency of the sex hormone producing glands) which leads to low sex drive and/or loss of fertility in men and loss of menstrual cycle in women. metabolism: diabetes in people with iron overload occurs as a result of selective iron deposition in islet beta cells in the pancreas leading to functional failure and cell death. skeletal: arthritis, from calcium pyrophosphate deposition in joints leading to joint pains. The most commonly affected joints are those of the hands, particularly the knuckles of the second and third fingers. skin: melanoderma (darkening or bronzing of the skin).The skins deep tan color, in concert with insulin insufficiency due to pancreatic damage, is the source of a nickname for this condition: "bronze diabetes" (for more information, see the history of haemochromatosis). Causes
The term haemochromatosis was initially used to refer to what is now more specifically called haemochromatosis type 1 (or HFE-related hereditary haemochromatosis).
The next year the CDC and the National Human Genome Research Institute sponsored an examination of haemochromatosis following the discovery of the HFE gene, which helped lead to the population screenings and estimates that are still being used today. See also
Human iron metabolism
Iron deficiency

References
External links

Iron overload at Curlie
GeneReview/NCBI/NIH/UW entry on HFE-Associated Hereditary Hemochromatosis
GeneReview/NCBI/NIH/UW entry on TFR2-Related Hereditary Hemochromatosis
GeneReview/NCBI/NIH/UW entry on Juvenile Hereditary Hemochromatosis
GeneReview/NCBI/NIH/UW entry on Aceruloplasminemia