DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF BETA THALASSEMIA TRAIT AND IRON DEFICIENCY ANAEMIA BASED ON THEIR HAEMATOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS IN CHILDREN

Abstract

The term anaemia is used when the quantity of red blood cells or the concentration of haemoglobin in the red blood cells is lower than the normal limit. It is a severe global public health issue that disproportionately affects children under the age of ve and pregnant women.Signs of anaemia may now be conrmed by measuring haemoglobin concentration in combination with other haematological and biochemical indicators to conrm iron deciency. To differentiate between thalassemia trait and iron de Aim: ciency anaemia haematologically. Along with different haematological indices and compare biochemical parameters for the same. Materials And Methods:A prospective study on 350 children aged 1 to 12 years who came with symptoms of anaemia were examined using several haematological and biochemical parameters, which were then veried by HPLC for differential diagnosis of BTT and IDA. We studied children less tha Results: n 12 years of age and among them majority were under the age of ve years, with 229 out of 350 children falling into this category. We observed that majority were males 182 (52%), while 168 (48%) subjects were females with M:F ratio of 1.08:1. The mean haemoglobin level in IDA was considerably lower than Thalassemia Trait and aberrant Hb variations. The mean RDW level was lower in BTT as compared to IDA. On HPLC, 10% of patients had HbA2 haemoglobin variation, indicating BTT, four children had the HbS variant, conrming sickle cell disease, one had HbF. 95%, and 310 had normal HPLC results, conrming IDA. Serum iron, serum ferritin was lower in IDA as compared to BTT whereas TIBC was higher in IDA as compared to BTT. Conclusion: The current study revealed that haematological measures with various indices are benecial in distinguishing between BTT and IDA, as well as their efcacy and association with biochemical markers. The study also revealed that HPLC is still the gold standard for BTT conrmation.