Reticulocytes indices in β thalassemia trait individuals

xxx (14.5%). These differences may be explained by the different types of equipment on the market today where the cell measurement methods may be different. Regarding erythrogram and leukogram parameters, the values found for both women and men did not show significant differences compared to values reported in the literature.(1,2,8) Reference values, stratified by gender, are described in Table 1. An important factor to be noted is the characteristic of the population involved in the current study. The Municipal Laboratory receives blood samples from about 100 government healthcare clinics scattered around the city of Curitiba that attend the city's most needy populations. Therefore, our results must be analyzed cautiously to avoid erroneous comparisons. In summary, our results showed that despite the improved technology of cell counting and analysis, the hematological parameters of the adult population of the city of Curitiba suffered no major changes compared to studies performed in the 1980s. However, our work incorporates one new parameter (red cell distribution width), and provides values that better reflect the current conditions of the majority of the adult population of the city of Curitiba, thereby allowing greater accuracy in the interpretation of the data provided by the complete blood count. References