Molecular Epidemiological Characterization and Health Burden of Thalassemia in Jiangxi Province, P. R. China

Lin Min
Zhong Tian-Yu
Chen Yi-Guo
Wang Jian-Zhong
Wu Jiao-Ren
Lin Fen
Tong Xin
Yang Hui-Tian
Hu Xiao-Mei
Hu Rong
Zhan Xiao-Fen
Yang Hui
Luo Zhao-Yun
Li Wen-Yu
Yang Li-Ye

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Publication date

July 2014

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0101505

Publisher

Public Library of Science

Abstract

Thalassemia is the most common inherited disease in southern China. However, this disorder is usually ignored by Jiangxi provincial health system and government due to lack of epidemiological data.A total of 9489 samples from Hakka Han and Gan-speaking Han in three geographical areas of Jiangxi Province were analyzed for both complete blood cell (CBC) count and reverse dot blot (RDB) gene chip for thalassemia.1182 cases of suspected thalassemia carriers with microcytosis (MCV<82 fL) were found by CBC count, and were tested by RDB gene chip to reveal a total of 594 mutant chromosomes, including 433 α-thalassemia mutant chromosomes and 172 β-thalassemia mutant chromosomes. Our results indicated a higher prevalence of thalassemia with the hete...