Background: Thalassemia is recognized as the most prevalent hereditary disorder all over the world with a significant negative impact on public health and the society especially endemic areas. In Egypt, The most prevalent hemoglobinopathy is β-thalassemia major. It is considered a major health problem in our region. Prevention by carrier detection and prenatal diagnosis is needed in populations with high incidence of the disease. The aim of the present work was to screen for beta thalassemia among the relatives of B thalassemia patient.
Methods: This study was carried on 100 children, aged (1.5-12) years old with mean 6.4± 2.6 years that were subjected to the following: Detailed history taking. Thorough clinical examination, Laboratory investigations: Complete Blood Count: The key components of the CBC include: hemoglobin, RBC count, mean corpuscular volume HbA2 Estimation.
Results: The results of complete blood count testing of all studied subjects revealed that (43%) subjects were non anemic, (57%) subjects were anemic. Among anemic group, (13%) subjects had normocytic anemia and (30%) subjects had microcytic anemia. Microcytic anemia group were further divided into two groups according to HbA2 level, B-thalassemia carrier group (with HbA2>3.5) were (10%) and non-thalassemia carrier group (with HbA2<3.5) were (90%). This study showed that, non-statistically significant deference between cases with B-thalassemia and without regarding sex and age.
Conclusion: Carrier rate among 100 relatives of B thalassemia patient was 10% Prevalence of microcytic anemia among the studied group was 30%.Carrier rate among the microcytic anemia group was 33.3% depending on the level of HbA2.