THALASSEMIA SYNDROME AND OTHER HEMOGLOBINOPATHIES: A SINGLE THALASSEMIA CENTRE EXPERIENCE FROM TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL OF PURULIA

Abstract

Background: Hemoglobinopathies are one of the major health burden globally including India and Southeast Asian region. This study was carried out to nd out the prevalence of β-thalassemia, HbS, HbD, HbE as well as identication of asymptomatic carriers who have an increased risk of having a child with thalassemia in the western part of West Bengal. Materials and methods: In this retrospective cohort study, the data was collected from all newly registered patients with anemia, referred from different outdoor patients in a tertiary care hospital, attending thalassemia clinic over a period of 3 years from January2018 to December2020. Detailed clinical history was taken and blood samples collected are tested with Sysmex automated blood cell counter for red cell indices. Diagnosis of hemoglobinopathy was done by G8 HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) Analyzer by TOSOH Bioscience. Results: A total 2297 cases were studied during the study period. The age of the patients ranged between 6 months to 60 years. Higher percentage of the study sample was at age of more than 10 years (93.8%). Among 2297 cases, 477 cases showed abnormal Hb fractions on HPLC. The following Hb abnormalities detected were following: β (beta) thalassemia trait 13.2%, β thalassemia major 2.3% followed by sickle cell trait 2.17%, HbE trait 1.8%, HbS disease 0.21%, Hb E disease 0.13%, hereditary persistence of fetal hemoglobin (HPFH) traits 0.17% and Hb D trait 0.08% along with HbE-β-thalassemia 0.30% and HbS-β-thalassemia 0.26%. Conclusion: Among the hemoglobinopathies, β-thalassemia trait (12.9%) is prevalent in western part of Bengal.