Frequency of α‐thalassemia in Greece

Using hematological and gene mapping techniques, a cord blood survey was carried out to estimate the frequency of α‐thalassemia in the Greek population. Out of 227 newborns studied, 16 (7.05%) were found by gene mapping to be α‐thalassemia 2 heterozygotes (‐α/αα), and of these only two had increased levels of hemoglobin Bart's in the cord blood (1.2 and 2.0%). Similarly, one heterozygote for the common Mediterranean α‐thalassemia 1 haplotype (–/αα) and one for the 20.5‐kb deletion type (‐α) 20.5 /αα) were found, showing increased levels of Bart's of 4.8 and 6.6%, respectively. Four (1.76%) heterozygotes for the triple α gene arrangement (ααα/αα) were found. One individual with a level of Bart's in the cord blood of 8% was found to be a double heterozygote for α‐thalassemia 2 and a dysfunctional α gene arrangement (‐α/‐(α)?). These results give an overall incidence for α‐thalassemia in the Greek population of 8.4%.