Clinical Features and Outcome of Children With Hereditary Spherocytosis.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the demographics, clinical, and laboratory findings and treatment responses of patients with hereditary spherocytosis (HS). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Data of children with HS were examined. Diagnosis was based on clinical history, physical examination, family history, presence of spherocytes on peripheral blood smear, and osmotic fragility test. RESULTS: A total of 101 patients were included. The median (range) age at diagnosis was 38.0 (1 to 188) months. Mild, moderate, and severe forms of HS were present in 29 (28.7%), 15 (14.9%), and 57 (56.4%) patients, respectively. Family history was available in 73 patients and 56 of these (76.7%) had a positive family history for HS. Forty-five (44.5%) patients needed regular transfusions and all of these had severe disease. Although most patients did not require transfusion postsplenectomy, 2 of 45 (4.4%) patients continued to require transfusion. Transfusion dependence was significantly (P<0.001) higher in patients with severe spherocytosis. CONCLUSIONS: In HS, splenomegaly, pallor, and jaundice are the most common clinical features. Splenectomy dramatically reduces hemolysis in most cases and virtually abolishes further requirement for transfusion.

Causes of Hypochromic Microcytic Anemia in Children and Evaluation of Laboratory Parameters in the Differentiation.

Most common causes of microcytic anemia in children are iron deficiency anemia (IDA) and thalassemia. Differentiation of these and detection of coexistence is essential for genetic counseling and to set a treatment plan. Aim is to characterize the frequency of IDA and thalassemia trait (TT) in children presenting with hypochromic, microcytic anemia and to define the significance of blood count parameters in differential diagnosis. Of the 200 enrolled, 107 were male (53.5%). In total 154 had IDA (77%), 27 had ß-TT (13.5%), and in 11 (5.5%) both conditions coexisted. Eight patients had α-thalassemia gene mutations, 3 of these also had IDA. RBC, MCV, Mentzer index, serum iron, TIBC, ferritin were significantly different between IDA and ß-TT patients (P<0.001); however, RDW was not different between the 2 groups (P>0.05). Sensitivity and specificity of Mentzer index for the detection of ß-TT were 100% and 69.4%, respectively. The positive and negative predictive values of Mentzer index in diagnosing ß-TT were 36.6% and 100%, respectively. Differential diagnosis of microcytic anemia is important in children, especially in regions where IDA and thalassemia are both prevalent. We found that 7% of children referred to our clinic for hypochromic, microcytic anemia had both TT and IDA. Our data showed that serum iron, ferritin, TIBC, MCV, and Mentzer index were all valuable markers in diagnosing IDA and were significantly different compared with ß-TT patients; RDW was not different between the 2 groups.