Thalassemia Patients and Friends
Discussion Forums => Thalassemia Minor => Topic started by: Melsgal on September 03, 2010, 06:51:04 PM
-
I read several posts on the site about what blood tests should be done when there is a concern of iron overload but I can't find them now. Could someone please tell me what the tests are called? Also, I would like to know what tests are/can be done to determine if a person has Thalassemia and the type and level of Thalassemia a person has. I would also like to know if a test for Thalassemia can show a falsely negative result and if so, why would that happen?
Thanks!
-
you may want to wait for more answers but i believe its iron chelation and ferritan lvls
-
Hi Melsgal,
You need to have a set of blood tests called an iron panel run before you take anymore iron. Any doctor prescribing iron to a thal minor without running these tests is being irresponsible and ignoring that iron cannot improve the anemia caused by thal minor. Iron deficiency can coincide with thal minor, but this needs to be established before setting off on a course of iron therapy. The iron panel will include tests for serum ferritin, serum iron, total iron binding capacity and possibly a transferrin saturation test. Until these tests establish iron deficiency, iron should not be taken. Iron is dangerous when too much is taken and can harm the organs.
Thal minor status is usually determined by a combination of a Complete Blood Count (CBC) and a hemoglobin electrophoresis test. A CBC alone may suggest thal minor status, so an electrophoresis will be run to confirm this status. In most cases, this will be sufficient but if there is still any question, a DNA analysis can be done to determine the exact mutation and status. The confusion in the CBC can come from the fact that iron deficiency and thal minor will have similar results for some of the involved tests.