Hi,
I, the father of our baby, has Thalassemia Minor. My wife does not have Thalassemia.
I understand that our baby has 50% chance of being a Thalassemia Minor (carrier).
Is there a chance whether it will mutate to a more severe case of Thalassemia ?
My wife is 21 weeks pregant and she just went for a anomaly scan (detailed ultrasound scan).
The result is terrible: slighly larger heart size (HA/CA is 0.4 instead of the normal 0.33)
(HA/CA is the Heart Area / Chest Area ratio). All the limbs are short (less than 5 percentile),
right hand shows a gap between middle and index finger. The leg posture is not very good.
We went for echocardiograph for detailed scan of the fetus heart and the result
is that the wall of the atria is thicker than normal. The doctor did not comment directly
at the results. He just said that this is not normal.
With the above symptom, our gynae suspect that it may be chromosome abnormalities
and recommanded amniocentesis. We went for it and are waiting for the results.
What we would like to know is that, will Thalassemia Minor fetus display the above symptom ?
i.e. bigger heart and shorter limbs ?
Please reply to my email at looialex@hotmail.com
Thanks.