Haematological and Biochemical status of Adolescent and Young Adults with Transfusion dependent thalassaemia – A study of 40 cases

Abstract

Transfusion dependent thalassaemia patients requires lifelong regular blood transfusion which is essential to address the consequence of genetic defect, mainly the severe anaemia and the bone marrow hyperactivity and later on iron chelation therapy. This study is carried out in an attempt to find out different clinicopathological parameters of transfusion dependent adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients. Data were collected from 40 transfusion dependant thalassemia patients aged 18 years or more receiving regular blood. The clinical data and laboratory results were subsequently compiled and analyzed. Of the 40 thalassaemic patients, 37 were HbE/ b-thalassemia and 3 were b-thalassaemia major. 39 (97.50%) of the patients were under transfused (mean Hb <10 gm/dl) and 35 (87.5%) of the patients were taking some form of chelation therapy but out of them only 1 (2.5%) were adequately chelated (S. ferritin <1000 ng/ml).