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Blood, 1 January 2006, Vol. 107, No. 1, pp. 355-357. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on September 22, 2005; DOI 10.1182/blood-2005-03-1231. This Article Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 2005-03-1231v1 107/1/355    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Borgna-Pignatti, C. Articles by Volpato, S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Borgna-Pignatti, C. Articles by Volpato, S. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Next Article  Submitted March 25, 2005 Accepted August 24, 2005 Seasonal Variation of Pre-transfusion Hemoglobin Levels in Patients with Thalassemia Major: Seasonal variation of hemoglobin in thalassemia Caterina Borgna-Pignatti*, Mariela Ventola, David Friedman, Alan R Cohen, Raffaella Origa, Renzo Galanello, Robert Lindeman, Sally Francis, Roberto Reverberi, and Stefano Volpato Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine-Pediatrics and Internal Medicine, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy Division of Hematology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA Ospedale Microcitemico, Department of Biomedical Sciences and Biotechnology, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy The Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick, NSW, Australia Transfusion Service, Arcispedale Sant'Anna, Ferrara, Italy * Corresponding author; email: c.borgna{at}unife.it. Patients with thalassemia major often report that during the summer season they do not maintain their usual pre-transfusion hemoglobin concentration. We collected 3977 pre-transfusion hemoglobin values, amount of blood transfused, and inter-transfusion intervals for 94 patients with thalassemia major from four centers worldwide. We also assessed the hematocrits of blood donors, the hemoglobin content of units transfused in one center, and the local mean monthly temperatures during the periods of data collection. Pre-transfusion hemoglobin levels were significantly lower during the summer in all centers except the one center where monthly temperatures have the least variation throughout the year. A similar relationship to temperature was observed for the hematocrits of blood donors and the hemoglobin content of donor units. This study confirms that pre-transfusion hemoglobin levels in patients with thalassemia major are lower in the summertime. Possible mechanisms include expansion of plasma volume with resultant hemodilution in the patient and lower hemoglobin content in donor blood. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? This article has been cited by other articles: E. Riva, M. Tettamanti, P. Mosconi, G. Apolone, F. Gandini, A. Nobili, M. V. Tallone, P. Detoma, A. Giacomin, M. Clerico, et al. Association of mild anemia with hospitalization and mortality in the elderly: the Health and Anemia population-based study Haematologica, January 1, 2009; 94(1): 22 - 28. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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