[Epidemiologic study of anemia in school children with special emphasis on hemoglobinopathies]

A total of 746 schoolchildren of both sex (aged 7-15) were investigated in the community of Backa Palanka and Bac with the view to establishing reference hematologic values of the red lineage: Hemoglobin (Hgb) 135.3 +/- 20.4 g/l, erythrocytes (Er) 4.42 +/- 0.60 x 10(12)/L, hematocrit (HTC) 0.41 +/- 0.06, MCH: 30.5 +/- 2.7 pg, MCHC: 32.8 +/- 3.2 g/l, MCV: 93.2 +/- 5.4 fl. In only 7.3% of children hemoglobin values were below 114.8 g/l (1.5 SD) so that anemia did not represent a socio-medical problem in children aged 7-15 in the area investigated. With regard to the investigation of inherited abnormalities in the synthesis and structure of hemoglobin five children showed a persisting synthesis of fetal hemoglobin with the mildly augmented HbF values: 2.7%, 3.8%, 3.9%, 4.2% and 4.8% while the increase in HbA2 with the values for heterozygotic forms of thalassemia was found in four children thus accounting for 3.3%, 3.5%, 3.5% and 4.3%. It was concluded that although genetically induced anemias were rare they were nevertheless present in this region. They necessitated further epidemiologic studies which had been performed in the greater part of Yugoslavia but not in SAP of Vojvodina nor in the new location of SAP of Vojvodina.