Using reticulocyte indices to identify alpha-thalassemia--a preliminary report

Thalassemia poses an important public health problem in Thailand. The Ministry of Public Health of Thailand has conducted many programs for the control of thalassemia. These programs are useless if there is no effective, affordable method of screening for carriers. We report on the possibility of using an automated reticulocyte analyzer in order to identify alpha-thalassemia. Thirty-one control subjects and 14 couples, whose offsprings were affected with thalassemia H (7 alpha-thalassemia-1 and 7 alpha-thalassemia-2) were studied. We found that almost all reticulocyte parameters could be used as diagnostic marker of alpha-thalassemia-1 carriers. Unfortunately, alpha-thalassemia-2 had only 5 parameters that were significantly different when compared to normal controls. This is the report to focus attention on the use of reticulocyte parameters in the screening of alpha-thalassemia.