Study on Clinicopathological Profile of Multitransfused Thalassemic Patients

Background & Aims: Thalassemia's are inherited blood disorders characterized by decreased hemoglobin production. If adequate transfusion is possible affected children grow and develop normally and have minimum abnormal physical sign. The disease poses a great problem due to the effects of iron loading resulting from ineffective erythropoiesis and repeated blood transfusion. This study is meant to nd out effect of multiple blood transfusion in thalassemia patients on growth and evaluation of hepatic and thyroid function along with effect of iron on reticuloendothelial system. Material & Methods: This longitudinal study was conducted on 100 beta thalassemia major patients at the Department of Pathology over a period of two years. The present study will be conducted for detection of clinical and pathological prole of multi transfused thalassemic patients i.e. complete blood count (CBC), Peripheral smear examination ndings, HPLC ndings, HbA1C value, thyroid and liver function test, Serum ferritin and correlation between them. Results: All patients had markedly elevated serum ferritin levels indicating iron overload. We observed that as the serum ferritin increases HbA1C value increases. Frequent blood transfusions can control hemoglobin level, but if serum ferritin levels are greater than desired level, patient's physical growth can be affected. Conclusion: Frequent monitoring and observation of the multitransfused thalassemic patient has an immense importance to prevent patient from going into severe organ impairment. Judicious use of serum ferritin in multi transfused thalassemic major patients is of prime importance to prognosticate disease severity.