Evaluation of clinical conditions of thalassemic patients having referred to Adult Thalassemia Center, Tehran

Background and Objectives Thalassemia is the most common hereditary anemia in Iran. Considering the recent treatment protocols and comprehensive data about clinical status of thalassemic patients, their survival rate has improved. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical condition of patients in Adult Thalassemia Clinic. Materials and Methods This cross sectional analysis was done on 695 patients having referred to Adult Thalassemia Center in 2008. We reviewed the medical files for some demographic and lab data about serum ferittin, hepatitis B, C, and HIV. The results were analyzed with Chi Square and Pearson correlation tests by SPSS version16. Results We had 695 patients: 358 (51.5%) male and 337 (48.5%) female with mean age of 26.26 years. Out of the total unmber of patients, 501 (72%) were major thalassemia and 170 (24.5%) intermedia. The mean ferritin level was 1755.16 ng/ml. Moreover, 423 (59.2%) of patients were spelenectomized. Out of our major and intermedia patients 24.5% were HCVAb positive out of which 66% were HCV PCR positive. For HBV, 565 (81.2%) of our patients were HBsAb positive after vaccination; 90 (12.9%) were immune to HBV from past infections (HBcAb+). Totally, 655 (94.2%) were immune to HBV. We didn’t have any HIV positive patient. Conclusions In our study, the quality of treatment is evaluated to be good as compared with other centers. We advise regular periodic control of patients for early dignosis and treatment to decrease mortality and morbidity rate of patients.