differential diagnosis of iron-deficiency anemia and beta-thalassemia, two common causes of anemia, affects the treatment in pregnant women. to help the diagnosis, we have tried to asses the pure effect of gestation on diagnostic criteria, eliminating iron and folate deficiency. in a prospective study, 46 thalassemic women were given ferrous sulphate tablets and folate. some indices, cbc and hb...

www.aafp.org/afp AMERICAN FAMILY PHYSICIAN 1379 in developing humans: the embryonic, Gower-I, Gower-II, Portland, fetal hemoglobin (HbF) and normal adult hemoglobin (HbA and HbA2). HbF is the primary hemoglobin found in the fetus. It has a higher affinity for oxygen than adult hemoglobin, thus increasing the efficiency of oxygen transfer to the fetus. The relative quantities of HbF rapidly decr...

Alpha-thalassemia (α-thal) is a disorder caused by the deletion of single or double α-globin genes, and/or point mutations in the α-globin genes. There are 2 common types of α-globin genes; HBA2 and HBA1. Recently, it has been discovered that the HBA2 gene is replaced by a unique HBA12 gene convert in 5.7% of the Saudi population. The α-globin genes have been emerging as a molecular target for ...

Dr. Köseler and her colleagues reported the presence of δthalassemia in 3 out of 12 patients carrying the β-thalassemia trait with low HbA2 in the recent issue of this journal without giving any explanations for the remaining 9 cases (2012; 29: 289-290) [1]. I wish that they would also look for the presence of αthalassemia, at least in those 9 cases, because this seems to be the more prevalent ...

BACKGROUND Hemoglobin (Hb) heterogeneity arises mainly from posttranslational modifications of the globin chains, and cation-exchange chromatography reveals falsely increased concentrations of some minor Hbs in the presence of abnormal Hbs. Here we describe a method for identification of the globin chains and their posttranslational modifications contained in the Hb fractions. METHODS We used...

Haemoglobin (Hb) Adana (HBA2:c.179>A) interacts with deletional and nondeletional α-thalassaemia mutations to produce HbH disorders with varying clinical manifestations from asymptomatic to severe anaemia with significant hepatosplenomegaly. Hb Adana carriers are generally asymptomatic and haemoglobin subtyping is unable to detect this highly unstable α-haemoglobin variant. This study identifie...

BACKGROUND An excess of caffeine is cytotoxic to all eukaryotic cell types. We aim to study how cells become tolerant to a toxic dose of this drug, and the relationship between caffeine and oxidative stress pathways. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We searched for Schizosaccharomyces pombe mutants with inhibited growth on caffeine-containing plates. We screened a collection of 2,700 haploid mu...

β-thalassemia is the most common inherited disorder characterized by a reduction or absence of β-globin chain synthesis. So far, over 200 mutations have been identified that result in β-thalassemia. Most of the mutations are single nucleotide substitutions or deletions, or insertions in the β-globin gene or its flanking sequences. Heterozygous β-thalassemia usually presents with mild microcytic...