European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

BACTERIAL INFECTIONS AND IMMUNITY OF ?- THALASSAEMIA PATIENTS, A CLINICAL STUDY

Eman Ali Hussein, Maan Bakr Qadoori, Mezher Mohsin Kadhim and *Najdat Shukur Mahmood

ABSTRACT

The immune system abnormalities observed in thalassaemia patients are both qualitative and quantitative, concerning many components of immune system; infections are a common complication and they can be fatal. This study was established to review the thalassemia patients for recurrences of bacterial infection. This is a retrospective cohort study, it was carried out in Al-Batool Teaching Hospital from Jul - Dec 2016. Criteria for susceptibility of immune-compromised patients for bacterial infection were applied for thalassaemia major and intermedia patients with revision of patients files and patients/ parents interview. Statistical analysis was carried out by statistical package of social sciences (SPSS), p-value was set at (0.05) level. A total number of 188 thalassaemia patients were enrolled in this study, most of them were at school age group (p-value=.000), more than half of included patients were male (p-value=.058). The results showed that 5 (2.7%) patients were documented as having a clinically significant bacterial infection over a retrospective 12 years of the center equating to an incidence of 0.23 infections per 100 patient years, 4 infections were developed in non- splenectomized patients giving a rate of (3%): 2 bacterial sepsis and 2 patients suffered from draining otitis media, whereas after splenectomy, only one patient develop bacterial pneumonia (1.9%). In conclusion, Only few bacterial infections were developed in included thalassaemia patients during the last 12 years. None of them fulfill the immunocompromised criteria.

Keywords: Bacterial infection, immunity, thalassaemia.