title: The selenium status in thalassemia patients in South East of iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There are limited reports about selenium status in major thalassemia patients. The aim of this study is evaluation of selenium status in patients with major thalassemia south east of Iran with large sample size and wide range of age. This study compared selenium status with other sites of the world.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study 369 cases that had major thalassemia for more than 5 years were enrolled in the study. Selenium level was measured in all eligible patients after 12 hours fasting by graphite enstrum furnace atomic absorption spectrometry in south east of Iran in 2012.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 369 cases, 333 eligible patients were evaluated. Mean age was 15.63±7.4 years. One hundred ninety two cases were male and others were female (141 Cases). About 27% (90) of the cases were 5-10 years-old, 24 % (80) were 10-15 years-old and 49% were more than 15 years-old. Iron chelator in 62.2% was Dessferrioxamine, in 15.5% was Deferiprone and in 22.3% was combination of Dessferioxamine and Deferiprone. Totally 85 cases (25.52%) had Selenium deficiency, 35.43% (118 cases) had normal levels and 39 %(130 cases) had selenium excess.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study on 333 major thalassemia cases documented variable status of selenium from deficiency to higher than normal levels. It was different with other reports in the world.
authors.affiliation: Health promotion research Center, Zahedan University of medical sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Mashhadi
authors.affiliation: Department of internal medicine, Ali Ebne Abitaleb Hospital, Zahedan University of medical sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Heidari
authors.affiliation: Department of internal medicine, Amir Al Momenin Hospital, Zabol University of medical sciences, Zabol, Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sepehri
authors.affiliation: Department of internal medicine, Ali Ebne Abitaleb Hospital, Zahedan University of medical sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Ali Reza
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Bakhshipour
authors.affiliation: Department of internal medicine, Ali Ebne Abitaleb Hospital, Zahedan University of medical sciences, Zahedan, Iran.
authors.forename: Azra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Karimkoshte
keywords: Major thalassemia; Selenium; South-east of Iran