Qamarur Nisa, Habibullah, Farzana Rizwan, Fatima Memon, Amna Memon.
Frequency of thalassemia trait in pregnant women.
Med Channel Jan ;17(1):56-9.

Objective: To determine the frequency of pregnant women with thalassemia trait at Department of obstetric and gynaecology Liaquat University hospital Hyderabad. Methodology: This is a prospective observational study of 200 pregnant women coming to Out Patient Department (OPD) and labor ward Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Liaquat University Hospital (Tertiary Care Hospital) Hyderabad during study period of one year from July 2004-June 2005. The patients were selected randomly irrespective of their gestational age. These women were screened for thalassemia trait by hemoglobin electrophoresis. Results: During one-year study 17(8.5%) out of 200 women were diagnosed with the help of hemoglobin electrophoresis to have thalassemia minor. The age of patients ranges between 15-40 years. Out of these, 10(59%) women were married with their cousins and family history was present in 4(24%) women. One woman had thalassemic child. Husbands of 3(17.6%) women were carriers of thalassemia. Conclusion: The frequency of thalassemia minor in pregnant women was 8.5% in this study. In 17.6% cases husbands were also carriers. This would justify routine screening for thalassemia, to identify at-risk couples due to a risk as high as 25% for affected offspring.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com