The RBC morphology in a peripheral blood smear in thalassemia trait resembles that of -

Recognition of Beta thalasssemia trait is impoant for 2 reasons. 1. superficially resembles the hypochromic microcytic anemia of iron deficiency 2. It has implications for genetic counselling. Iron deficiency can be usually excluded through the measurement of serum iron,total iron binding capacity and serum ferritin. The blood picture in alpha thalassemia is also identical and resembles iron deficiency anaemia. Ref: Robbins and Cotran Pathologic basis of disease.South Asia Edition volume 1.edition 9/e page no. 420-421