2020, Vol. 3, Issue 2, Part C

Method: A total 37 patients (aged 2 years to 15 years) were included for this cross sectional study to assess the effect of transfusion and chelation therapy on growth and development of transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia patients (TDT) in a rural setting of central India. Data and blood reports were collected from January 2019 and was analyzed using SPSS v 22.0 applying non-parametric Man-Whitney U test and Chi Square test for independence of attributes.

Findings: Only 5 (13.5%) were adequately transfused maintaining pre-blood transfusion hemoglobin level ≥9gm% and all of them did not have growth retardation. A total 29 patients were under chelation therapy, and 28 (96.55%) were found to have serum ferritin level ≥1000mg/dl. Growth retardation was diagnosed among 17 (45.94%) of the patients, whereas a range of 5-12% of them were having Intelligence Quotient (IQ) or Social Quotient (SQ) <80% as assessed by Seguin form board test, Draw-a-man Test and Vineland Social Maturity Scale. 7 out of 17 patients who were below 6 years of age, were diagnosed as suspects by Denver Developmental Screening tool.

Conclusion: A significant number of transfusion-dependent Beta-thalassemia patients were having inadequate transfusion and chelation therapy which affect their growth and development variably (positively corelated if P