Thalassemia - diagnosis in 5 seconds or less
We family physicians don't know everything ... and if we knew it once .. we may have forgotten. Clincial problems that we don't see often will cause us to make referrals to specialists - and this teamwork is often a good model for patient care. Yesterday's call to a local pediatric hematologist reminded me of a simple formula I learned in medical school, but hadn't used in 10 years.
Mentzer Index = MCV/RBC
Ratio < 13 then the patient most likely has Thalassemia
Ratio >13 then the patient most likely has iron deficiency anemia
Though we often look at a low h/h and low MCV and think iron deficiency right away ... recall that ferretin is a better measure of iron deficiency ... and the Mentzer Index can always help us to identify Thalassemia. Remind me of this in 2014 ...
