I was very pleased to hear that Sir David Weatherall has won the Lasker Prize for his work in Thalassemia.
I have known him (though not well) for the best part of thirty years. Many years ago I wrote a paper with him, having discovered a patient with beta thal trait and swiss type hereditary persistence of HbF, each inherited from a different parent.
He was quite excited by the discovery and sent his research fellow, Bill Wood, down to Bournemouth to do the necessary confirmatory tests on our primitive equipment. The paper was published as Heterocellular hereditary persistence of fetal haemoglobin (heterocellular HPFH) and its interaction with B thalassaemia. WG Wood, DG Weatherall, JB Clegg, TJ Hamblin, JH Edmonds, AM Barlow. British Journal of Haematology 1977 36: 461-473. and has been cited 35 times.
Your topic has lead me to a question that I can't believe I haven't asked to anyone before.
ReplyDeleteAre there any additional "gotchas" I should be aware of with beta thal trait and CLL? I haven't had any that I know of so far. Sorry the question takes you off topic.
Thanks,
Tom
No Tom
ReplyDeleteNo additionals. You just have to beware that no one makes the false diagnosis of iron deficiency, which is a risk for everyone with beta thal trait.
On the other hand with MDS you can acquire a type of alfa thal trait that is not inherited.