A PCR‐based strategy to detect the common severe determinants of α thalassaemia

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Abstract
A rapid and inexpensive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) based strategy is described which detects the three common, severe α thalassaemia determinants observed in southeast Asia (——SEA) and the Mediterranean (——MED and —(α)20.5). Oligonucleotide primers have been chosen which allow specific identification of both normal (αα) and abnormal (——) chromosomes using identical conditions in either the same or parallel PCR reactions. This strategy should be useful in the development of screening programmes to identify carriers of α thalassaemia (——/αα) and prenatal diagnosis of the Hb Bart's hydrops fetalis syndrome (——/——) for those populations in which this represents a major cause of perinatal death.