Diagnosis of Beta-Thalassaemia Carriers in the Sultanate of Oman

Background: haemoglobinopathies are a major cause of morbidity in the sultanate of oman and premarital screeningis being encouraged in order to reduce the number of affected births. the identification of (beta)-thalassaemia carrier status is an essentialprerequisite of any screening programme. however, the level of haemoglobin (hb) a2, which is used to detect (beta)-thalassaemia carriers,can be affected by other factors including iron deficiency, concurrent (alpha) thalassaemia and the type of dna mutation present. objectives:the following study was undertaken to ascertain if the hb a2 level is an appropriate tool for the identification of (beta)thalassaemiacarriers in the omani population. method: hb a2 was measured by high performance liquid chromatography (hplc) in 160 obligatecarriers of (beta)-thalassaemia. 158 subjects had hb a2 levels above 3.5% indicating (beta)-thalassaemia trait. two subjects had slightly lowerlevels and were found to be iron deficient. after therapy both these subjects hb a2 levels increased to above 3.5%. conclusion: inthe absence of iron deficiency, hb a2 is an accurate marker for the presence of (beta)-thalassaemia trait in the sultanate of oman.