conclusions there was insignificant correlation between serum hepcidin and ferritin levels in the two groups of patients with tm and ti. it seems that regulation of hepcidin in patients with thalassemia is more affected by erythropoeitic activity than iron stores. also, hepcidin levels were significantly higher in patients with tm than ti, possibly due to higher erythropoeitic activity in ti. i...

Although the life expectancy of thalassemia patients has markedly improved over the last few decades, patients still suffer from many complications of this congenital disease. The presence of a high incidence of thromboembolic events, mainly in thalassemia intermedia, has led to the identification of a hypercoagulable state in these patients. In this review, the molecular and cellular mechanism...

BACKGROUND There are various clinical symptoms of thalassemia intermedia, and they lie roughly between those of major and minor forms of the disease. Patients with thalassemia intermedia occasionally require blood transfusions. This renders them susceptible to pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) syndrome, which is one of the most significant complications in patients with thalassemia intermed...

Beta-thalassemia is due to a defect in the synthesis of the beta-globin chains, leading to alpha/beta imbalance, ineffective erythropoiesis, and chronic anemia. The spectrum of thalassemias is wide, with one end comprising thalassemia minor, which consists of a mild hypochromic microcytic anemia with no obvious clinical manifestations, while on the other end is thalassemia major, characterized ...

Few literatures have elaborated on the clinical characteristics of children with thalassemia from low-prevalence areas. A retrospective analysis was conducted on children genetically confirmed with thalassemia at Seoul National University Children's Hospital in Korea. Nine children (1α thalassemia trait, 6β thalassemia minor, 2β thalassemia intermedia) were diagnosed with thalassemia at median ...

background: heart disease is the main cause of mortality and morbidity in patients with beta thalassemia, rendering its early diagnosis vital. we studied and compared echocardiographic findings in patients with beta thalassemia major, patients with beta thalassemia intermedia, and a control group. methods: eighty asymptomatic patients with thalassemia major and 22 asymptomatic cases with thalas...

Thalassemia associates anemia and iron overload, two opposite stimuli regulating hepcidin gene expression. We characterized hepatic hepcidin expression in 10 thalassemia major and 13 thalassemia intermedia patients. Hepcidin mRNA levels were decreased in the thalassemia intermedia group which presented both lower hemoglobin and higher plasma soluble transferrin receptor levels. There was no rel...

BACKGROUND Thalassemia is a heterogeneous disorder and several genetic factors influence the severity of thalassemia. An accurate and early diagnosis of a mild thalassemia genotype helps to avoid unnecessary transfusion and its complications. The aim of this study is to identify the association between XmnI polymorphism and disease severity in patients with beta-thalassemia from northern Pakist...

I enjoyed reading Bilgen et al.’s case report, The effect of HBB: (c*+96T>C (3’UTR+1570 T>C) on the mild β-thalassemia intermedia pheonotype, in the recent issue of the Journal (2011; 28: 219-222). I congratulate the authors for exploring at the molecular level at least one of the thalassemia minima that fits well with the present clinical thalassemia nomenclature. Based on their clinical descr...