title: Percentile curves for red cell indices of beta zero-thalassaemia heterozygotes in infancy and childhood.
abstract: This paper describes the percentile curves for red blood cell (RBC) count, Hb, mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH) values of beta zero-thalassaemia heterozygotes during infancy, childhood and adolescence. Hb values were about 2 g/dl below those of normal controls with a progressive increase with age paralleling the normal developmental trend. The Hb increase with age was due to a progressive rise in the Hb content per cell, the number of RBC remaining nearly constant. MCV and MCH values also increased with age with a pattern parallel to normal control. Because of the high prevalence of alpha-thalassaemia in the Sardinian population, to which all the subjects investigated belong, the 3rd MCH-MCV percentile curves of normal overlap the 97th curve of beta-thalassaemia heterozygotes. The HbA2 levels, however, were always increased as compared to normal. These results confirm in children than screening for heterozygous beta-thalassaemia in populations with a high incidence of alpha and beta-thalassaemia by MCV-MCH determination may overlook a sizeable proportion of beta-thalassaemia carriers. The knowledge of the extent of variation of RBC indices of beta-thalassaemia heterozygotes during infancy, childhood and adolescence, is very useful for the evaluation of a child presenting with a mild microcytic anaemia.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Clinica e Biologia Età Evolutiva, Università degli Studi, Sardinia, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Galanello
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lilliu
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bertolino
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cao
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D004909:Erythrocyte Indices; D005260:Female; D006580:Genetic Carrier Screening; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis*; D006579:Heterozygote; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D013789:Thalassemia / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins