Paritpokee Nara, Wiwanitkit Viroj, Bhokaisawan Narudee, Boonchalermvichian Chaiyaporn, Preechakas Paungpayom
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330 Thailand.
Clin Lab. 2002;48(11-12):631-4.
Presently, the assays for serum erythropoietin (EPO) seem valuable tools for clinical research, but their roles in routine clinical practice remain undefined. Some studies mentioned that serum EPO measurements, which are now easily and reliably performed, should be used in monitoring the therapy of beta-thalassemia major. Here, we report our experience in the determination of serum EPO in children with beta-thalassemia/Hb E and also compared the results with those in hemoglobin E trait, beta-thalassemia/Hb E as well as healthy non-anemic controls of similar age. Fifty five transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia/Hb E, fifteen hemoglobin E trait, five beta-thalassemia trait cases and twenty five controls were studied for their serum EPO levels. The mean (S.D.) EPO concentrations were 19.94 (17.40) U/L for the controls, 16.13 (8.47) U/L for the hemoglobin E trait, 24.40 (8.20) U/L for the beta-thalassemia trait and 372.19 (432.04) U/L for the beta-thalassemia/Hb E cases. The mean EPO concentration for the normal controls was near to that of the hemoglobin E trait (P = 0.06) and beta-thalassemia trait (P = 0.25) but eighteen times less than that for the beta-thalassemia major cases (P<0.0005).
目前，血清促红细胞生成素（EPO）检测似乎是临床研究的重要工具，但其在常规临床实践中的作用仍不明确。一些研究提到，现在易于且可靠地进行的血清EPO检测应用于监测重型β地中海贫血的治疗。在此，我们报告我们在测定β地中海贫血/Hb E患儿血清EPO方面的经验，并将结果与血红蛋白E特征、β地中海贫血/Hb E以及年龄相仿的健康非贫血对照者的结果进行比较。研究了55例依赖输血的β地中海贫血/Hb E、15例血红蛋白E特征、5例β地中海贫血特征病例和25例对照者的血清EPO水平。对照组的平均（标准差）EPO浓度为19.94（17.40）U/L，血红蛋白E特征组为16.13（8.47）U/L，β地中海贫血特征组为24.40（8.20）U/L，β地中海贫血/Hb E病例组为372.19（432.04）U/L。正常对照组的平均EPO浓度与血红蛋白E特征组（P = 0.06）和β地中海贫血特征组（P = 0.25）接近，但比重型β地中海贫血病例组低18倍（P<0.0005）。
