Study of Blood Iron vs. Blood Lead Levels in Beta-Thalassemia Patients in Turkey: An Application of Analytical Toxicology

The main goal and novelty of this paper was to assess the blood iron and lead levels of beta-thalassemia patients vs. healthy (non-thalassemic) control subjects. The study involved 100 genetically unrelated thalassemia patients and 100 healthy unrelated controls. The blood lead levels were measured by graphite furnace atomic spectrometry and the blood iron levels were measured by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The mean blood iron level was found to be significantly lower in beta-thalassemia patients (293.20 +/- 58.49 mg/L) than in the controls (405.28 +/- 11.14 mg/L) (p<0.05). On the other hand, the mean blood lead level was significantly higher in beta-thalassemia patients (71.20 +/- 43.38 mu g/L) than those in the controls (27.58 +/- 8.18 mu g/L) (p<0.05). A statistically negative correlation between iron and lead was found in the beta-thalassemia patients (r = -0.424, p<0.05). This study revealed that iron deficiency in beta-thalassemia patients is associated with higher blood lead levels.