Blood Diseases – Many diseases or conditions are caused by abnormalities in the blood. These abnormalities may affect the red blood cells, white cells or platelets . Anaemia is one of the most common conditions in which the body has an abnormally low num...
An individual with beta thalassaemia minor or trait has one perfectly normal beta-globin gene and only one copy of the beta thalassaemia gene ). An individual with alpha thalassaemia minor or trait has at least two normal alpha globin genes (out of the four). ...
Thalassaemia major, also known as Mediterranean Anaemia or Cooley’s Anaemia, was once thought to be limited to the region around the Mediterranean Sea, hence the name Mediterranean Anemia or thalassaemia(thalassa-anaemia) — the latter deriving from...
Regular blood transfusions greatly contribute to the quality and length of life of patients with thalassaemia major and have been a central aspect of the treatment of thalassaemia since 1960s. If not effectively managed, the severe anaemia and over-expansion o...
As iron accumulates in the body — either as a result of the thalassaemia itself, or of blood transfusion therapy, or both — the main iron-carrying protein in the blood, transferrin, gets filled up ( saturated) with iron, resulting in increased circulation of n...
In untransfused thalassaemia intermedia and thalassaemia major, the body attempts to compensate for the severe anaemia by absorbing significantly more iron from the gut than normal (About 3 to 4mg per day compared to about 1mg per day in healthy individuals), ...