Some physicians neglect the possible coexistence of an
iron deficiency with
a thalassemia minor and do not treat the
iron deficiency accordingly. This motivated us to conduct this study. We retrospectively reviewed the records of 3892 patients who visited our clinics and had
hemoglobin (Hb) electrophoreses performed in our hematologic laboratory from August 1, 2007 to December 31, 2012. The
thalassemia minors were identified by characteristic complete blood count (CBC) parameters obtained from an autoanalyzer and Hb electrophoresis, and some cases were confirmed with molecular tests. Then, we checked
iron studies [
ferritin and/or serum
iron with total
iron-binding capacity (TIBC)] to determine the coexistence of an
iron deficiency with
a thalassemia minor and a response to
iron, if such treatments were given. We found 792 cases with
thalassemia minors, and excluded those without
iron studies, with 661 cases as our sample. A total of 202/661 cases (31%) also had
iron deficiencies. They had lower red blood cell (RBC) counts, Hb, and
ferritin levels as compared to those
thalassemia minor cases without coexistence of
iron deficiencies. We concluded that the
thalassemia minor patients did not have
iron overload complications in our population. On the contrary,
iron deficiencies commonly coexist in the clinical visits. We propose that if Hb < 11.5 g/dL in a case of
thalassemia minor, one should screen for
iron deficiency simultaneously. The sensitivity is 79.8% and the specificity is 82.6%. Therefore, physicians should be aware of this coexisting condition, and know how to recognize and treat it accordingly.