Seropositivity of hepatitis C, hepatitis B and HIV in chronically transfused beta -thalassaemia major patients

The purpose of this study was to determine the frequency and trend of transfusion transmitted infections [TTI] in chronically transfused beta-thalassaemia major [TM] patients with reference to the duration of transfusions. A cross-sectional study was done on 160 beta-TM patients and 5517 healthy blood donors to find out the prevalence of HCV, HBV and HIV infections. Out of 160 patients, 21 cases [13.1%] were anti-HCV positive, 2 [1.25%] were HBsAg positive. HIV antibodies were not detected in any sample. However, 109 [1.9%] and 104 [1.8%] of 5517 blood donors were positive for HCV and HBV respectively. No donor showed HIV antibodies. Anti-HCV was positive in 9/111[8.4%] thalassaemics [< 10 years of age] while 11/49 [22%] [> 10 years of age] showing significant difference [p = 0.005] among the two groups. For the past 10 - 12 years the screening of blood has reduced the magnitude of the disease significantly as shown by the trend in two age groups. Further improvements need to be done to implement uniform screening throughout the country

Effectiveness and feasibility of transabdominal chorionic villous sampling procedure for prenatal diagnosis of beta-thalassaemia in a Muslim majority community of Pakistan

To determine the effectiveness and feasibility of transabdominal chorionic villi sample [CVS] procedure for prenatal diagnosis of beta-thalassaemia in a Muslim majority community. Between January 2005 and December 2011, we analysed 798 high-risk mothers with 12-16 weeks of pregnancy for beta-thalassaemia using CVS, performed with a transabdominal route under local anesthesia and ultrasound guidance. The chorionic villi extracted were investigated upon using genomic amplification of beta-globin gene by polymerase chain reaction [PCR]. A total of 798 of which 224[28%] fetus were diagnosed as major, 400[50.1%] as minor, 173[21.6%] as healthy fetus and 1[0.12%] fetus had undetected mutation. Procedure related complications were seen in 20 cases [2.4%] and missed abortion occurred in 6/798. Seven [3%] couples had refused to abort beta-thalassaemia major fetus where as 97% fetus was aborted as per recommendations. Ultrasound guided transabdominal CVS is an effective procedure for prenatal diagnosis of beta- thalassaemia in a Muslim community. We found no cultural hurdles for fetal sampling and prenatal diagnosis