Hæmoglobin Bart's in Italy

Abstract

CONTINUING our investigations, already reported¹, we have found 9 cases of hæmoglobin Bart's out of 3,556 samples of cord blood. In 7 of these, re-examined after several months, the abnormal hæmoglobin had disappeared. In 4 babies, aged from 5 to 10 months, an evident microcythæmic (or thalassæmia) hæmatological picture appeared; in three others, still very young, the hæmatological characters were still uncertain with regard to microcythæmia (or thalassæmia). Examination of the parents, carried out in 8 families, has revealed, in all, the absence of abnormal hæmoglobins; however, in 7 families, one of the two parents showed the hæmatological characters, either pronounced or slight, of microcythæmia; only in one family were the hæmatological characters normal, with the exception of very slight erythrocytic morphological alterations in the mother. In our previous communication, we had observed this family only and another one, in which the mother showed rather slight deviations and therefore, we thought that we could exclude the existence of any relationship between hæmoglobin Bart's and micro-cythæmia however, it must now be that such a relationship exists.