β-Thalassemia trait and hyperbilirubinemia in G-6-PD deficient newborn infants

Abstract

Hb A2 was determined in 50 subjects with erythrocyte G-6-PD deficiency who presented with hyperbilirubinemia in the neonatal period and in 100 non-hyperbilirubinemic G-6-PD deficient newborn infants, at the age of 12 months or more. Six subjects in the first group and 13 in the second were found to be carriers of the beta-thalassemia trait. Statistical analysis of the data did not show any significant difference between the two groups. It seems that the beta-thalassemia trait does not provide any protection against neonatal hyperbilirubinemia associated with G-6-PD deficiency.

The unreliability of mean corpuscular volume and mean cellular hemoglobin determinations in the diagnosis of ?-thalassemia in newborn infants

“…c~-Thalassemia is a hereditary hemoglobin disorder commonly found in oriental populations [12,13], but also frequently observed in Africans [1,3,5] as well as people of Mediterranean origin [4,7,9].…”