APPLICATION OF THE POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION TO THE DIAGNOSIS OF

Background – Sickle cell anemia is one of the most common heritable hematologic diseases affecting humans. Detection of the single base pair mutations at codon 6 of the beta-globin gene is important for the prenatal diagnosis of sickle cell anemia and sickle cell disease. We applied the polymerase chain reaction technology to detect sickle cell patients and heterozygous carriers in a group of patients suspected of sickle cell disease. Methods – The sample was composed of 45 normal individuals and 45 unrelated sickle cel