Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan
  • 2 Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya
  • 3 Department of Haematology, Institute for Medical Research
  • 4 Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia
Med J Malaysia, 2006 Jun;61(2):217-20.
PMID: 16898315

Abstract

Thalassaemia is an inherited blood disorder and is a significant public health problem in Malaysia, with many not knowing they carry the gene for thalassaemia. The two major forms are alpha and beta thalassaemia. An individual can co-inherit both the alpha and beta thalassaemia genes. This study determined the frequency of concurrent carriers of alpha thalassaemia in 231 beta thalassaemia carriers. Gap-PCR was done on extracted DNA of the beta thalassaemia samples to check for alpha thalassaemia 1 molecular defect. Eight (3.5%) samples were found to have concurrently inherited the alpha thalassaemia 1 (- -SEA) deletion. The significant carrier rate for alpha thalassaemia 1 indicates the need for the implementation of DNA analysis to complement thalassaemia screening in high risk populations.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.