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Thalassemia is a wide spread genetic disease presented as chronic anemia. Hemoglobin Bart’s hydrops fetalis, the most severe form of thalassemia, is fatal and uniformly results in still birth when there is a homozygous defect of alpha thalassemia 1.This can be avoided if parents who are carriers for the alpha thalassemia 1 know their genetic status.


Thank to an invention of a strip test for rapid detection of hemoglobin Bart’s, screening for the alpha thalassemia 1 carrier can be simply done. A multicenter validation study of this immunochromatographic strip test has shown that the test is highly sensitive and specific, thus rule out mass populations for further alpha thalassemia 1 detection by PCR-based analysis.