Clinical features of thalassemia.

The thalassemia syndromes are an important group of diseases in childhood, frequently encountered in many ethnic groups worldwide. Heterozygotes are frequently misdiagnosed as having iron deficiency anemia, and the more severely affected homozygotes present major problems in management. Advances in prenatal diagnosis offer hope for prevention, while progress in transfusion therapy, accuracy of prediction of value of splenectomy, and chelation therapy offer improved quality and, perhaps, duration of life.