Value of red cell mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin in screening and identifying of pregnant women complicated with mild thalassemia

Objective: To study the value of red cell mean corpuscular volume(MCV) and mean corpuscular hemoglobin(MCH) in screening and identifying of pregnant women complicated with mild thalassemia.Methods: Red blood cell(RBC),MCV,MCH,level of hemoglobin(Hb),mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration(MCHC) and hemoglobin electrophoresis analysis of peripheral blood were measured in 1514 cases of pregnant women when they took pre-natal examination in the first time.The pregnant women were divided into three groups according to the results of blood routine test and hemoglobin electrophoresis analysis: group Ⅰ(n=127),women who with Hb100g/L and abnormal distribution of hemoglobin;group Ⅱ(n=69):women who with Hb100g/L and normal distribution of hemoglobin;control group(n=1318):women who with Hb100g/L and normal distribution of hemoglobin;the gold standard diagnosis of thalassemia is gene diagnosis.Results: MCV and MCH were the lowest in group I(P0.01) when compared with those of group Ⅱ and control group,there′s no significant difference between group Ⅱ and control group(P0.05).Thalassemia can be diagnosed by MCV and MCH with a sensitivity of 98.06%,a specificity of 72.04%,false positive rate of 0.28,false negative rate of 0.02,accuracy of 90.31%,positive predictive value of 79.53%,negative predictive value of 90.3%,positive likelihood ratio of 3.5 and negative likelihood ratio of 0.028.Conclusions: Low MCV and MCH is a character of mild thalassemia.MCV and MCH can be used for further clinical screening and identifying of mild thalassemia.