Table 2. Comparison of clinical and laboratory data of thalassemia patients.

Variables	BTM (n=16)	BE (n=31)	Thalassemia Hb H+ AE Bart’s (n=17)	P-value
Age (years)	24.5 ± 1.2	31.2 ± 1.9	39.4 ± 2.8	0.001*
Gender (male/female)	7/9	11/20	7/10	0.841
Transfusion dependence	16/16 (100%)	16/31 (51.6%)	1/17 (5.9%)	<0.001*
Number of blood transfusion units
Median (IQR)	18.5 (10)	3 (14)	0 (0)	<0.001*
Range	12–31	0–30	0–4
Iron overload	16/16 (100%)	22/31 (71.0%)	10/17 (58.8%)	0.01*
Serum hepcidin (ng/ml) [normal male 29–254 ng/ml, normal female 17–286 ng/ml] [19]
Median (IQR)	40.69 (23.50)	44.95 (18.03)	45.12 (22.26)	0.224
Range	23.18–74.75	24.28–76.29	29.22–72.58
Serum ferritin (ng/ml)
Median (IQR)	2105 (1977)	1234 (927)	967 (986)	0.002*
Range	933–7245	208–6255	164–3815
Hb (g/dl)
Median (IQR)	7.1 (0.9)	7.4 (1.9)	8.3 (1.9)	0.017*
Range	6.0–8.4	5.5–9.3	4.6–9.6
NTBI (μM)
Median (IQR)	0.45 (0.16)	0.48 (0.29)	0.55 (0.31)	0.427
Range	0.39–3.56	−0.24–13.43	0.37–0.85
LPI (μM)
Median (IQR)	4.76 (2.2)	4.81 (8.2)	1.6 (3.3)	0.004*
Range	1.36–14.29	−2.03–13.49	−3.03–6.83

Data are expressed in numbers or mean ± SD. *P< 0.05 is considered statistically significant.