EVALUATION OF SOME HAEMATOLOGICAL PARAMETER

SUMMARY

The objective of this study was to assess the relationship between some haematological parameters, serum ferritin level and haemoglobin genotypein anaemic patients attending Federal Medical Centre Birnin Kebbi.

The mean difference of PCV (%), haemoglobin F (%), haemoglobin A₂, and ferritin concentration (ng/ml) between the subjects (anaemic patients) and the controls (non - anaemic). The difference between the subjects and controls in all the parameters were found to be statistically significant with p-values of 0.000 for PCV, 0.021 for HbA₂ and 0.000 for ferritin. Only HbF level of the subjects was not significantly different from that of the controls with p-value 0.885.         

All the parameters differed significantly from the controls except the HbF that was not significantly different with a p-value of 0.855. There was also a significantly lower level of PCV among the subjects. This shows the fact that the subjects were indeed anaemic when compared with the controls.  The level of HbA₂ of the patients was significantly higher as compared with the controls (p <0.021). Elevated level of haemoglobin A₂ is one of the principal marker for the diagnosis of thalassaemia. Though it could not be concluded that the cause of elevated level of HbA₂ in these subjects was due to thalassaemia, the possibility of other factors such as co-infection with malaria cannot be ruled out (Jha et al., 2012). This finding of elevated HbA₂ level agrees with a study carried in India by (Jha et al., 2012) in which increased level of HbA₂ was found in anaemic patients. The finding of such an agreement may be due to the fact that both Nigeria (Kebbi) and India are malaria endemic regions, though different methods of quantification were used in the two studies and the Indian study focused mainly on malaria patients. Serum ferritin level in the subjects was also significantly reduced as compared to the controls.