Wednesday, May 25, 2016

Thalassemia mnemonic

Hello!

I was reading thalassemia today and I thought of sharing few facts and this trick for learning the beta chain variants of hemoglobin (Hb) in Thalassemia.

Facts about thalassemia:
It's an autosomal recessive hemolytic anemia due to defective production of Hb!


Beta thalassemia is most common single gene disorder.

Also, it's more severe than alpha thalassemia!

So, there are 3 variants of Beta Hemoglobin. How to remember them?
Beta is Normal
Beta° means NO formation of Beta chain
Beta+ means "too much" production of Beta chains
(Well, name speaks for itself :P)

Now, how to learn the pattern of these chains in thalassemia?
(I'll have to borrow your imagination a bit for this!

So, think of a Grandpa called Major aka Cooley,
His Son called Intermedia
And the Kid called Minor!

Now, think of their "life expectancy" (the ° and +s!)

Major will live less
Intermedia will live for intermediate term
Minor will live Longer!)

Thalassemia Major or Cooley's anemia (beta° beta°)
Thalassemia Intermedia (beta+ beta+) or (beta° beta+)
Thalassemia Minor (beta beta°) or (beta beta+)

That's it!

I hope you enjoy reading this!
Happy
www.medicowesome.com!

-Rippie

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