title: Spectral detection of thalassemia: a preliminary study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Thalassemias (Thal) are forms of inherited autosomal recessive blood disorders arising out of mutations in the chromosomes 11 or 16. These disorders lead to poor oxygen delivery to blood vessels and consequent splenomegaly, bone deformities, and shorter life spans. The most common detection methods for Thal are complete blood count (CBC) followed by electrophoresis and molecular diagnosis methods, such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) genotyping. These methods involve sophisticated instrumentations and are cumbersome and expensive.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In this study an innovative spectral detection method, based on the fluorescence spectra of a set of biomolecules (tyrosine, tryptophan, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, and flavin adenine dinucleotide and porphyrins) found in blood components is presented. An algorithm based on the spectral features of such biomolecules of blood components of 20 Thal patients (10 female and 10 male) and 18 age adjusted normal controls (4 female and 14 male) demonstrate reasonable level of classification with sensitivity and specificity values exceeding 90%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This new technique could be of significant value for Thal detection, diagnosis, and subsequent genetic counselling and could be adapted for use in small primary health centres.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Alsalhi
authors.forename: Farjah H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Algahtani
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Devanesan
authors.forename: V Trinka
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: Vijmasi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jeyaprakash
authors.forename: Abbas H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Alsaeed
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, King Saud University, P, Box: 2455, Riyadh 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. masila123@gmail.com.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Masilamani
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D004912:Erythrocytes; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation; D012372:ROC Curve; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013789:Thalassemia / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology