Affiliations 

  • 1 Y C Wee, MMed.Sc. Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur
  • 2 K L Tan, Dip.MLT. Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur
  • 3 P C Tan, MRCOG. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur
  • 4 S F Yap, FRCPath. Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur
  • 5 J A M A Tan, PhD. Department of Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur
Med J Malaysia, 2005 Oct;60(4):447-53.
PMID: 16570706

Abstract

Haemoglobin Bart's hydrops foetalis syndrome (--SEA/--SEA) is not compatible with life and contributes to a majority of the hydropic foetuses in the Malaysian Chinese alpha-thalassaemia carriers who possess the 2-alpha-gene deletion in cis (--SEA/alphaalpha). A duplex-PCR which simultaneously amplifies a normal 136 bp sequence between the psialpha-alpha2-globin genes and a 730 bp Southeast Asian deletion-specific sequence (--SEA) between the psialpha2-theta1-globin genes was established. The duplex-PCR which detects the --SEA deletion in both chromosomes serves as a rapid and cost-effective confirmatory test in the antenatal diagnosis of Haemoglobin Bart's hydrops foetalis syndrome in Malaysia. In addition, the duplex-PCR is simple to perform as both the normal and deletion-specific alpha-globin gene sequences are amplified in the same PCR reaction.

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