الفهرس 
Aim of the workOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Thalassaemia is an inherited condition that affects the blood. The main
types of thalassaemia are called alpha thalassaemia and beta thalassaemia in
which part of the haemoglobin is faulty either the alpha chains or the beta chains.
This leads to the easy break down of red blood cells, so the person becomes
anaemic with various symptoms. Thalassemia commonly affects people of
Mediterranean, Asian or African origin.
There are three types of Beta thalassemia. β Thalassemia major starts
around age of six months with severe anemia, poor growth, and skeletal
abnormalities during infancy. Symptoms come on gradually and need early
treatment to prevent complications. β Thalassemia intermedia is less severe and
doesn’t need regular monitoring but needs some treatment to prevent
complications. β Thalassemia minor is often asymptomatic.
Diagnosis of thalassemia includes complete blood count, Analysis of
hemoglobin . However, analysing the genetic information of DNA and RNA helps
to understand the disease. Prenatal testing helps for diagnosis before birth.
Thalassemic patients are exposed to serious complications if untreated due
to Excess iron overload. Complications within the liver, heart, and endocrine
glands, growth impairment, diabetes and osteoporosis .These complications often
occur with thalassemia major.
Treatment of thalassemia depends on the type and severity. Treatment
therapy includes regular blood transfusions, iron chelation, and folic acid. Iron
chelation is done with deferoxamine or deferasirox. In addition, bone marrow
transplantation is an option.
In thalassemia trait there is only one copy of the beta thalassemia gene
(together with one perfectly normal β chain gene).
Persons with β thalassaemia trait are asymptomatic or have mild anemia.
However, they have a normal blood iron level. No treatment is necessary for
thalassemia minor. In particular, iron is neither necessary nor advised.
If both parents are carriers, probability for having of having thalassemic
child is 25% in each pregnancy.so that screening of thalassemia carriers is very
important. Screening for β thalassaemia trait consists of Full blood count with red
cell indices, Iron status espesially ferritin, and Hb A2 % .
As thalassemia major require long-term treatment, prevention of the
homozygous state represent a major armament in the management. Prevention
involves carrier detection, molecular diagnosis, genetic counseling, prenatal
diagnosis , pre implantation and pre conceptional diagnosis .
The presence of characteristic red blood cell microcytosis and elevated
levels of HbA2 establish the diagnosis of βTT. However, in some mutations of
βTT and in heterozygous α thalassemia, HbA2 is not elevated.
The main objective of this study: Detection of frequency of β-Thalassemia trait
among secondary school students in El Bagor city,Menofeya governorate.