Discussion Forums > Thalassemia Major

blood donors

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germ79:
Thank you for the information.  We do not know what kind of testing she has had so far, as she is in Asia (we are in the US) and we have not been able to have any contact with her or her physicians.  Hopefully we'll find out more when we travel to pick her up.  I understand about frequency of blood donation limiting using the same donors - I'm just a nervous mom, wanting to make sure my baby always has blood available when she needs it.  I'm sure my nerves will settle once she has been with us awhile and we have gotten used to her needs. 

thank you for the information
Diana

Sharmin:
Diana,

When she gets here it will be a good idea to be in touch with a comprehensive thal care center, they can do the testing there.  It is vital to have genotype testing when she gets here, in order to get well matched blood.   We will be here to guide you through any other questions you may have. 

Zaini,  yes, it will be very difficult to do phenotype testing once she is regularly transfused for 2 reasons - 1) it is difficult to separate host from donor rbcs (it is possible with sophisticated equipment but a lot of the patient's own retics are required) 1) with regular transfusions, thal major's bone marrow is suppressed and it is difficult to get enough retics without letting the patient's hg drop considerably.  This test is best done before the patient is transfused.   The genotype testing looks at actual DNA from the nuclei of WBCs so it can be done at any time. 

Depending on how long she will be transfused before getting here you will also look into checking her iron levels and deciding on chelation treatments. 

Sharmin

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