The efficacy of a neonatal screening programme in decreasing the hospitalization rate of patients with G6PD deficiency in southern Iran.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate whether a neonatal screening programme for G6PD deficiency has decreased hospitalization for acute haemolytic attack in the Fars province of southern Iran.


METHODS
A total of 850 patients registered with G6PD deficiency were included in the study. Variables including age, sex, time and cause of hospitalization, cause of haemolytic crisis, positive history of blood transfusion, G6PD enzyme deficiency, blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine were recorded based on a standard questionnaire. All patients were analysed for G6PD enzyme level based on a quantitative test.


RESULTS
Five hundred and fifty-three patients were hospitalized before the introduction of the neonatal screening programme (2001-2004) and 297 afterwards (2005-2008). Of those patients hospitalized after the introduction of the screening programme, 237 were wrongly classified as normal and 60 were recorded as having G6PD enzyme deficiency by the neonatal screening programme. The main causes of haemolytic crisis in G6PD-deficient patients were fava bean consumption (88.2%), underlying infection (10.9%) and drugs (0.8%).


CONCLUSIONS
Our study showed the effectiveness of the neonatal screening programme in decreasing the hospitalization rate.
Cohan
Nader
N
Hematology Research Center, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran.
Karimi
Mehran
M
Khalili
Amir Hossein
AH
Falahzadeh
Mohammad Hossein
MH
Samadi
Behrang
B
Mahdavi
Mohammad Reza
MR
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005955:Glucosephosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007492:Iran; D008297:Male; D015997:Neonatal Screening / Q000379:methods*