DETERMINATION THE EFFECT OF IRON OVERLOAD ON VITAMIN D AND THE PERCENTAGE OF EACH BLOOD GROUPS IN PATIENTS WITH THALASSEMIA

Thalassemia can be characterized as hereditary erythrocyte abnormalities resulting from the defect in the synthesis of the hemoglobin globin chain that leads to microcytic hypochromic anemia. This study aimed to find some relationship between the ABO system and thalassemia disease and to determine the relationship between ferritin and vitamin D in patients with thalassemia. This study estimated the level of Hb, ferritin, and vitamin D and also calculated the percentage of ABO blood types in thalassemia and non-thalassemia patients (control group). This study was conducted with 60 samples, 20 for the control group, and 40 for patients with thalassemia. The age of patients with thalassemia and controls ranged from 2 to 29 years. This study found a correlation between ferritin and vitamin D. The results demonstrated a significant reduction (p 0.05) of Hb and vitamin D, but a significant increase (p 0.05) in the concentration of ferritin. The study also found a nonsignificant negative relationship (p 0.05) between the level of ferritin and vitamin D. It was demonstrated that blood group O is more present in thalassemia patients (40%) whereas groups A, B, and AB, respectively, are present in 23%, 28%, 10% of patients. It can be concluded that patients with thalassemia are more frequent with blood type O followed by type B and, less frequently, blood type AB. Thalassemia, vitamin D, ferritin, ABO blood group system.