Red cell indices: differentiation between β-thalassemia trait and iron deficiency anemia and application to sickle-cell disease and sickle-cell thalassemia.

Background: In Tunisia, thalassemia and sickle cell disease represent the most prevalent monogenic hemoglobin disorders with 2.21% and 1.89% of carriers, respectively.

Red cell indices: differentiation between β-thalassemia trait and iron deficiency anemia and application to sickle cell disease and sickle cell thalassemia.

Background: In Tunisia, thalassemia and sickle cell disease (SS) represent the most prevalent monogenic hemoglobin disorders with 2.21% and 1.89% of carriers, respectively.

δ0-Thalassemia in cis of βKnossos globin gene: first homozygous description in thalassemia intermedia Libyans and first combination with codon 39 (C→T) in thalassemia intermedia Tunisian patients.

Background: β-Thalassemia is the most common disease among hemoglobinopathies in North African and Arab populations. In the present study we report the first description of the β-Knossos codon27 (G→T) (βKnossos) allele in cis with the δ059 (-A) mutation in thalassemia intermedia patients in Tunisia and Libya.

Methods: This identification was carried out by sequencing analysis of the whole coding regions of the δ- and β-globin genes.

A lower-cost protocol for sickle cell disease neonatal screening in Tunisia.

Background And Objectives: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of hereditary chronic anemias that manifest essentially as painful crisis and susceptibility to infection. Neonatal screening is a preventive action that reduces the rates of mortality due to complications arising from infections by encouraging early prophylactic penicillin use and pneumococcal vaccination. The purpose of this pilot study was to set up a neonatal screening protocol at a lower cost than one that uses commercially available screening kits.