الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Beta thalassemia is a severe hemolytic anemia occurring as a result of deficient or absent synthesis of beta globin chain of hemoglobin A. It is characterized by severe anemia, growth retardation, skeletal disturbances, iron overload, cardiac and endocrine abnormalities which cut short the life of the affected patient. Early and regular blood transfusion therapy in patients with beta thalassemia decreases the complications of severe anemia and prolongs survival in the long term; however the beneficial efforts are limited by organ damage resulting from iron overload and by the complication of infection with blood borne agents. Of these infections, HCMV infection continues to be a significant cause of morbidity and mortality among children and immunocompromised patients.
Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a double stranded DNA virus and is a member of the Beta herpesviridae subfamily which belongs to the family Herpevirida. All herpes viruses share a characteristic ability to remain latent within the body over long periods. Although they may be found throughout the body CMV infections are frequently associated with salivary glands, in humans and other mammals.
The CMV seroprevalence varies according to socioeconomic status and on traditions of child nursing of the countries .It is almost 100% in developing countries (high seroprevalence) and 30–60% in industry developed countries (moderate and low seroprevalence).
We conducted a study to determine the frequency of HCMV infection in a sample of multitransfused thalassemic patient aged below 15 years, and to test the value of ELISA technique in diagnosis of CMV infection in comparison to qualitative PCR technique among multitransfused thalassemic patients.
This study included one hundred transfusion dependant beta thalassemia major patients from the hematology unit at Alexandria university children hospital of El-Shatby. The control groups