OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that quantitative ultrasound properties of the calcaneus in Southeast Asian children treated for thalassemia have different characteristics than those of their healthy counterparts and thereby can be used for assessing the risk of osteoporosis. METHODS Broadband ultrasound attenuation and the speed of sound were measured from gro...

As initial human gene therapy trials for beta-thalassemia are contemplated, 2 critical questions important to trial design and planning have emerged. First, what proportion of genetically corrected hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) will be needed to achieve a therapeutic benefit? Second, what level of expression of a transferred globin gene will be required to improve beta-thalassemic erythropoie...

BACKGROUND Most thalassemic patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection do not respond to therapy with pegylated interferon (Peg-IFN) plus ribavirin (RBV) due to hepatic siderosis and RBV dose reduction caused by RBV-induced anemia. OBJECTIVES In the present study, we recruited HCV genotype 1-infected thalassemic patients who had relapsed after a 48-week treatment with Peg-IFN plu...

this prospective case-control study was carried out to evaluate the Prevalence of positive cases of anti-HCV Ab in 107 thalassemic patients  and 107 children without any previous history of blood transfusion as a control group.ELISA GENERATION II was used for serologic investigation and then positive cases were confiemed  by RIBA generation I.the average age of thalassemic patients was 9.2+_4.3...

Objective. Thalassemic children are dependent on regular blood transfusions in order to sustain health and life. Thus, they are significantly exposed to transfusion transmitted diseases. This study was conducted to estimate the prevalence of hepatitis B and C in a group of multitransfused thalassemic children in Punjab. Methods. 116 children, ages seven and a half months to eighteen years, were...

BACKGROUND/AIMS The distribution of blood lipids, glucose and their determinants in thalassemic patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has rarely been investigated. Thus, we aimed to investigate the relationship between both liver histologic findings and viral markers and serum lipids in thalassemic patients chronically infected with HCV. METHODS We enrolled 280 polytransfuse...