[Prevalence of hemoglobinopathies in pregnant women in the Lanzarote health sanitary area]. / Prevalencia de hemoglobinopatías en mujeres gestantes en el área sanitaria de Lanzarote.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study is to analyze the global prevalence of carriers of heterozygous hemoglobinopathies among pregnant women settled in Lanzarote. PATIENTS AND METHODS: A epidemiologic cross-sectional observational investigation was undertaken to study the prevalence of hemoglobinopathies in 2,436 pregnant women in Lanzarote. The techniques of primary screening were hemoglobin electrophoresis on cellulose acetate at alkaline pH for the detection of hemoglobin variants, and the quantification of HbA2 and HbF for the diagnosis of b thalassemia trait. The study to confirm the diagnosis of structural hemoglobinopathies was based on hemoglobin electrophoresis on citrate agar at acid pH, isolectric focusing and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The molecular characterization of b thalassemia trait (HbA2 >3.5%) was carried out by techniques using a real time PCR procedure with specific fluorescently labelled hybridization probes and allele-specific amplification (PCR-ARMS). RESULTS: The global prevalence of hemoglobinopathies was 11.90 corresponding to 9.44 for structural hemoglobinopathies and 2.46 for heterozygous b thalassemias. A variant hemoglobin was detected on 23 women and the distribution was as follows: thirteen carriers of hemoglobin S, seven HbC trait, two HbD trait and one "unstable" hemoglobin. 82.6% of the variant hemoglobins found were from migrant population from Africa and America. CONCLUSIONS: The high prevalence of carriers of structural hemoglobinopathies in Lanzarote justifies the initiation of programs for screening for hemoglobinopathies to prevent the emergence of severe states causing disease.

[Renal volumetric echography in the newborn infant with an agenetic, dysplastic or obstructive contralateral kidney]. / Volumetría ecográfica renal en el recién nacido con riñón contralateral agenésico, displásico u obstructivo.

In newborn babies with congenital renal pathology type agenesia, dysplasia or obstruction is very important to know if there is intrautero vicariant growing of the contralateral kidney. To find out that we have proceeded to be ultrasound volume measurement of the normal renal unit, as this is a valuable parameter related to compensatory mechanisms. We have studied by ultrasounds 28 renal units (16 right, 12 left) in newborns with contralateral pathology: pyeloureteral stenosis in 10 cases, multicystic kidney in 13 cases, renal agenesia in 3 cases, obstructive ureterocele in 1 case and another one with ureterovesical stenosis. We considered renal function, length of the larger renal axis width and depth of the kidney mass. Renal function was normal in all cases. Analysis of objectives results show a clear difference between the volume of normal Kidneys in children with contralateral pathology and the control group constituted by 42 renal unit in normal newborns without urological pathology. We conclude with the real evidence of compensatory growing of the normal contralateral kidney during intrautero periods.