Immigrants from many parts of the world settled in Paraná State in Brazil, contributing to the diversified genetic patrimony of its population. This characteristic led us to investigate, for the first time, the incidence of hemoglobinopathies in the population of one city in Paraná. A total of 585 blood samples were collected from individuals living in Umuarama. Hemoglobinopathy tests were carried out using the classical methodology. The results show that 93.17% have the normal electrophoretic pattern (AA); 2.73% have the beta-thalassemia trait; 2.05% have the sickle cell trait (AS); 1.37% are heterozygous for alpha-thalassemia; 0.34% heterozygous for hemoglobin C (AC); 0.17% have both alpha-thalassemia and sickle cell traits and 0.17% are heterozygous for alpha and beta-thalassemia. A comparison of these results with other works suggests that the frequency of hemoglobinopathies can significantly vary between cities within the same state. This fact may be attributed to the miscegenation of the population or even to the diverse prevalence of hemoglobinopathies in distinct populations.
Hemoglobinopathies; incidence; electrophoresis; sickle cell trait
