An Insight into Heterozygous β-Thalassemia, Myanmar
There are many differential diagnoses of hypochromic microcytic anemia. In Myanmar congenital and acquired hemolytic anemias and iron deficiency anemia are top listed as common causes. The frequency of β-thalassemia is about 4.3% in Myanmar. Since most of heterozygous β-thalassemias (β-thalassemia traits) are asymptomatic and, more importantly, laboratory facility is very limited, the establishment of diagnosis of it is difficult. Here we report 12 cases of Myanmar voluntary subjects with β-thalassemia trait (parents of thalassemia major patients) and the findings of high performance liquid chromatography and isoelectric focusing of their hemolysates. From this small scaled study, we observe that β-thalassemia traits of high Hb A2 type is more common than that of high Hb F type in Myanmar. Features of δβ-thalassemia heterozygote are not observed.
