Haemochromatosis or haemosiderosis Historically, the term haemochromatosis (spelled hemochromatosis in American English) was initially used to refer to what is now more specifically called haemochromatosis type 1 (or HFE-related hereditary haemochromatosis). Currently, haemochromatosis (without further specification) is mostly defined as iron overload with a hereditary/primary cause or originating from a metabolic disorder. However, the term is currently also used more broadly to refer to any form of iron overload, thus requiring specification of the cause, for example, hereditary haemochromatosis. Hereditary haemochromatosis is an autosomal recessive disease with estimated prevalence in the population of 1 in 500 among patients with European ancestry, with lower incidence in other ethnic groups. The gene responsible for hereditary haemochromatosis (known as HFE gene) is located on chromosome 6; the majority of hereditary haemochromatosis patients have mutations in this HFE gene. Hereditary haemochromatosis is characterized by an accelerated rate of intestinal iron absorption and progressive iron deposition in various tissues that typically begins to be expressed in the third to fifth decades of life, but may occur in children.
