beta-Thalassaemia major in Kuwait.

A combined retrospective and prospective study of 129 beta-thalassaemia major patients seen between 1965 and 1995 in Sabah Hospital, Kuwait has been carried out. The age range at diagnosis was 2 to 84 months, median 9 months. In approximately 80 per cent, the patients were outcomes of first- or second-cousin marriages.

Molecular characterization of alpha-thalassemia determinants, beta-thalassemia alleles, and beta S haplotypes among Kuwaiti Arabs.

Using amplification, allele-specific oligonucleotide (ASO) hybridization and DNA sequencing we have documented the molecular basis of 64 alpha- and 123 beta-thalassemia (thal) chromosomes, and the haplotypes of 18 beta S chromosomes from patients followed in three hospitals in Kuwait. Of the 30 chromosomes from 15 patients with Hb H disease, 26 (86.7%) carried the polyadenylation (poly A) signal mutation (AATAAA-->AATAAG) in the alpha 2-globin gene, 3 (10%) had the -alpha (3.