β-genotyping should always be done in a couple if one partner is a β-thalassaemia carrier irrespective of the RBC indices and HbA2 levels of the other partner.
Approximately 6% of cases with minor thalassemia RBC index and normal HbA2 and having a decreased β/α ratio were located in the minor β-thalassemia group.
We evaluated the use of RBC-Y in 156 normal individuals and 332 patients; ATT (n = 37), BTT (n = 61), HET (n = 25), HbH disease (n = 5), ACD (n = 67), IDA (n = 83) and ACD with IDA (n = 54).
Considerable GDH activity was also noted in patients with thalassemia major (11.0 IU10(11) RBC) as well as in cases with pronounced reticulocytosis (11.4 IU/10(11) RBC).