Background: Beta-thalassemia trait and iron deficiency anemia are among the most common types of microcytic anemia encountered by pediatricians. Distinguishing 𝛽-TT from IDA has important clinical implications because each disease has an entirely different cause, prognosis, and treatment. Misdiagnosis of 𝛽-TT has consequences for potential homozygous offspring.
Objective: The major purpose of this study is to evaluate the validity of 23 new indices to discriminate between iron deficiency anemia and thalassemia trait in developing country to decrease cost and time of the screening programs.
Methodology: This study included 200 patients who presented with microcytic hypochromic anemia by CBC at the pediatric hematological outpatient clinic of Sohag University Hospital and their ages ranging from 6 months to 16 years from May 2017 to May 2018.
Results: The results showed that Kerman Index 1 had the highest Youden's Index value (61.02%) in rightly differentiating between IDA and Β-TT, while it was found that Sirachainan et al, Huber-Herklotz Index (HH), and RDW as a discriminative function showed the worst Youden index (0.0%, -1.69%, and -5.65% respectively) and ineffective in differentiating between microcytic anemias in our population.
Conclusion: The present study indicates that Kerman Index 1, Mentzer index (MI), Ehsani et al index, Modified Mentzer index, Kerman Index 2, and RBCs count are the highest reliable discriminator indices in differentiating of β-TT and IDA in Sohag country.