Summary:
Thalassemia is one of the commonest inherited diseases in
Bangladesh. The birth of a thalassemic child places
considerable strain, not only on the affected child and its
family but also on the community and the nation at large.
To reduce the burden of the society and to reduce the disease
incidence by providing genetic counseling, detection of
carrier is important.
The present study evaluates the role of ‘Naked Eye Single
Tube Red Cell Osmotic Fragility Test’ (NESTROFT) in
detecting ß-thalassemia trait.
The current study is a cross sectional study done during
the period of September 2008 to August 2009. The study
subjects were sibs, parents and relatives of thalassemia
patients of age more than 1 year attending Pediatric
department of Chittagong Medical College Hospital. Sample
size was 50. Here subjects with lowered osmotic fragility
test were detected and later on Hb- electrophoresis was
done. All the data were recorded and analyzed by SPSS
programme. The Sensitivity, Specificity and predictive value
of positive and negative tests were computed and they were
92.6%, 80%, 92.6% and 80% respectively. False positive
cases were found.
The present study found NESTROFT to be both sensitive
and reasonably specific and of high negative predictive
value. However, multicenter study with large sample is
needed to recommend NESTROFT as a single screening
test for detection of ß-thalassemia trait.
(J Bangladesh Coll Phys Surg 2018; 36: 145-152)
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbcps.v36i4.36086