Abstract

 Background and Objectives

  The immunity system of thalassemics cause of different reasons faces dysfunction. So they are susceptible to recurrent infections. One of these reasons pertains to deficiency in phagocytosis, chemotaxis, and bacterial killing ability neutrophils. As there are several reports about decline in neutrophilic functions in such patients, we aimed at studying phagocytosis and candida killing in major thalassemics.

  Materials and Methods 

  In this study, we analyzed blood samples drawn randomly from 30 patients with thalassemia major (16 splenectomized), and 30 healthy subjects as control group without any familial background of the disease. We evaluated phagocytosis and candida killing in these groups.

 Results

  Our findings showed that there is no relationship between sex and age with neutrophil function in the patients. There is a significant difference in phagocytosis (p<0.1) and killing ability between the patient group and control group (p<0.0001).

 Conclusions

  Since phagocytosis and candida killing are of lowest activity in patients than in the control group, there may be relative deficiency in these patients’ neutrophils function.