[Value of various hematologic indexes proposed for identifying healthy carriers of the beta-thalassemic trait].
The results of a screening for beta-heterozygous thalassemia conducted on 999 school-boys aged from 11 to 13 are the following: 7.5% of the subjects were taker of the thalassemia trait; 74 subjects over 75 with beta-heterozygous thalassemia had "Mean Corpuscolar Volume" (MCV) values below 70 fl. The results of the subjects with globular volume less than or equal to 79 fl (with or without beta-thalassemia) were used to compare the diagnostic accuracy of beta-thalassemia for the hematological indexes of England-Fraser, Mentzer, Shine-Lal and the MCV estimations. This comparison has shown better results in terms of sensibility and specificity for MCV with respect to the other indexes. A more extensive application of the study could be convenient in order to evaluate if the MCV level of 70 fl is effective to discriminate between beta-thalassemia and non thalassemic microcytosis.
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D004911:Erythrocyte Volume; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006580:Genetic Carrier Screening / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013789:Thalassemia / Q000097:blood*
Considerazioni sul valore di alcuni indici ematologici proposti per identificare il portatore sano del trait beta-talassemico.