Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0039730 (thalassemia)
 10,305 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Transfusion of whole blood or blood components is the mainstay of treatment in patients with beta-thalassemia and hemophilia. Owing to the scarcity of reports regarding the frequency of transfusion-transmitted hepatitis virus infections in thalassemia patients, the frequency of such infections was studied in India in 40 multi-transfused thalassemia patients (26 males, 14 females; mean age 8.1 +or- 5.3 years, range 1-35) with no clinical or biochemical evidence of liver disease. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) technique (Abbott) was used for all tests. The patients had received an average of 80 units (range 10-250) of blood. A majority of these units had been screened for hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) using RPHA. HBsAg antibodies were present in 18 (45%), antihepatitis C virus (HCV) in 7 (17.5%), and antihuman immunodeficiency virus in 1 (2.5%) case, respectively. Of 18 HBsAg positive patients, antidelta and anti-HCV antibodies were present in 3 and 4 patients, respectively; 1 patient had both the antibodies. 4 of 40 (10%) patients had evidence of both hepatitis B virus (HBV) and HCV infection. In a US study, the frequencies of HBsAg and anti-HBs positively among thalassemics were 4.5% and 43.5%, respectively. In contrast, 90% of hemophiliacs show serological evidence of HBV infection. Routine screening of blood donors by CEP or RPHA technique was started in the hospital blood bank 7 years ago. The sensitivity of these techniques is much lower than that of RIA and ELISA and a majority of the patients has received initial blood transfusions before HBsAg screening was started. The study indicated that more than 50% of multi-transfused thalassemia patients showed serological evidence of one or more HBV, HCV, HDV, and HIV infection. Thus, screening of blood units for HBV, HCV, and HIV infections to be used for thalassemic patients and vaccination of thalassemic patients against hepatitis B is imperative.
 ...
PMID:Frequency of hepatitis B, C and D and human immunodeficiency virus infections in multi-transfused thalassemics. 142 37

38.5% or 10 of 26 children with thalassemia who had received blood transfusion have tested positive for HIV at the Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar. Blood for transfusion was obtained from commercial suppliers in Miami, Florida, since late 1970. Since December 1985 all blood for transfusion has been tested for HIV for ELISA kits from Abbott Laboratories, Chicago, Ill, and confirmed by Western Blot. These children ranged from 3-13 years old, mean 7.7, and had received an average of 63.5 transfusions. All had been given at least 30 transfusions. Children testing negative for HIV averaged 35.0 lifetime transfusions. 4 of the affected children had persistent generalized lymphadenopathy, but no other symptoms were recorded.
 ...
PMID:High prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus infection in children with thalassemia exposed to blood imported from the United States. 367 Sep 41

A specific enzyme immunoassay (EIA) for the diagnosis of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection was developed by recombinant DNA technology. Abbott HCV EIA was used to detect antibody to HCV (anti-HCV) in non-transfused and multiply-transfused thalassemia patients. None of 11 non-transfused patients had anti-HCV but 3 of 52 (5.8%) multiply-transfused patients had anti-HCV. This study showed that the prevalence rate of HCV infection is low in thalassemia patients. However, it is still important to identify hepatitis C virus infected patients in high risk groups because hepatitis C is associated with chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
 ...
PMID:Antibody to hepatitis C virus in thalassemia patients. 827 96

The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of hepatitis E virus (HEV) infection among individuals at high risk of transmission of non-A, non-B hepatitis or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and to evaluate whether they have an increased risk of exposure to HEV. Serum samples from 125 thalassemia patients, 300 intravenous drug users, 420 hemodialysis patients, 263 individuals with STDs, 47 human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected homosexual men, and 316 healthy volunteers were tested for immunoglobulin G (IgG) and M (IgM) antibodies to HEV (anti-HEV) by enzyme immunoassays (EIAs) following a predetermined algorithm (Abbott Labs). Anti-HEV IgG was confirmed in 3/125 (2.4%) thalassemia patients, 5/300 (1.7%) intravenous drug users, 27/420 (6.4%) hemodialysis patients, 4/263 (1.5%) STD patients, 1/47 (2.1%) homosexual men, and 7/316 (2.2%) of the reference group. No patient was found positive for anti-HEV IgM. The higher prevalence which was observed in hemodialysis group was due to the confounding effect of age, as multivariate analysis showed. The anti-HEV prevalence increased significantly with age (p = 10(-4)). No significant association was found between anti-HEV, anti-HCV, and anti-HBc. In conclusion, individuals at high risk of non-A, non-B hepatitis and STDs have no increased risk of exposure to HEV and the higher prevalence of anti-HEV IgG among older subjects may be due to an epidemic form of HEV infection which occurred some decades ago, when the sanitary conditions in our country were poor.
 ...
PMID:Hepatitis E virus infection in individuals at high risk of transmission of non-A, non-B hepatitis and sexually transmitted diseases. 895 70

Twenty-four serum samples from multitransfused patients with beta-thalassaemia major and fourteen positive control samples, (eight haemodialysis patients and six sporadic cases of HCV infection) were selected as anti-HCV-positives by a second-generation ELISA, a confirmatory test (Abbott), and an immunoblot assay (INNO-LIA HCV AbIII, Omicron Medical). Subsequently, by means of the nested polymerase chain reaction technique (PCR), using the set of PT1-4 primers, the RNA of the virus was detected in a total of 29 samples: 22 out of 24 patients with beta-thalassaemia and 7 out of 14 from the control group were positive for the RNA of the virus. The findings show that there is a statistically significant prevalence [chi2 = 6.344, P < or = 0.02] of HCV viraemia in the population of beta-thalassaemia major in Greece, as compared with the positive control group.
 ...
PMID:Beta-thalassaemia and the prevalence of HCV viraemia. 1205 Dec 91