Frequency and Clinico-Haematological Characteristics of Iron Deficiency Anemia and Haemoglobinopathies : Experience from Pakistan

Background: Iron deficiency Anemia (IDA) is the most common type of anemia. The genetic disorder thalassemia is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner and very common in Pakistan due to consanguineous marriages. Objective: The study was done to observe the frequency and detailed clinicohematological of IDA and hemoglobinopathies in the Pakistan. Methodology: A cross-sectional and observational study carried out at the Dr. Essa Laboratory and Diagnostic Center from September 2020 to February 2022. There were 1465 participants in all. The Bio-Rad D10 analyzer was used for Hb electrophoresis and the XP-100 was used for Complete Blood Counts (CBC). Using SPSS version 23, all parameters were computed as mean, standard deviation, and percentages and mean comparison was done by using one-way ANOVA. Results: The patients' average age was 23.51±8.98.Of the 1465 participants, 1071 patients (73.1%) had IDA, which was more common than thalassemia minor 276(18.83%), thalassemia major 90 (6.14%), HbD disease 20 (1.36%), and HbE disease 08(0.54%) patients. Weakness was the most prevalent presenting complaint, seen in 933 patients (63.68%).The mean Hb 4.9±2.8g /dl and MCH 16.2±4.8 were found to be significantly low in Thalassemia major patients with p=<0.001. Conclusion: Since thalassemia is a hereditary condition, IDA and thalassemia minor were shown to be more common in our studied group. Premarital screening and appropriate interventions, including prenatal diagnosis, should be carried out to lower the risk of Hemoglobinopathies. Nevertheless, this study was conducted using a limited sample size and it has to be evaluated further using a large sample size throughout other regions of Pakistan.