A Japanese female with chronic mild anemia and primary iron overloading disease.

A 65-year-old woman died of congestive heart failure and diabetes mellitus. She had a history of mild anemia since adolescence, but received neither iron supplementation nor transfusion. The cirrhotic liver obtained at autopsy contained a large amount of iron. The heart and pancreas also had excess iron. Her iron overload may be due to excess iron absorption in the gut because of the absence of an iatrogenic background such as transfusion or iron supplementation.