The hemoglobinopathies in iron deficiency patients
Patmasiriwat, P.; Choopanya, K.; Kuptamethi, S.
Journal of the Medical Association of Thailand 68(5): 248-253
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0125-2208 PMID: 4031719 Document Number: 255244
From 60 iron deficiency patients of our study, 23 patients (equivalent to 38.3%) were found to have hemoglobinopathies coinciding with the iron deficiency anemia. Within this group 8 patients (equivalent to 13.3%) and .beta. thalassemia trait, 14 patients (equivalent to 23.3%) had HbE trait and 1 patient (equivalent to 1.66%) had .alpha. thalassemia trait. The percentage of the combined abnormal hemoglobin or thalassemia and iron deficiency in sixty patients was much higher than expected, hence, we should like to conclude that the plausible combination of iron deficiency anemia and hemoglobinopathy should be kept in mind. The examination of screening hemoglobin typing in the suspected patients could be highly useful to doctors. The combination of iron deficiency anemia and abnormal hemoglobin or thalassemia, which were found to have a high incidence in Thailand, might be the case. The examination could help prevent the diagnosis that the anemia was only the result of iron deficiency. Appropriate advice, therefore, could be given to patients with genes of thalassemia and abnormal hemoglobins.