Foundation:

Prenatal detection of hemoglobinopathies in Cuba is performed on all pregnant women in Primary Health Care, through hemoglobin electrophoresis to identify high-risk couples. The program provides genetic counseling, molecular prenatal diagnosis and selective interruptions of affected fetuses, at the request of couples.

Objective:

Determine the type and frequency of hemoglobinopathies in Cuban pregnant women.

Method:

A descriptive, retrospective and cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the type of hemoglobinopathies in 1,342,917 pregnant women recruited over a period of ten years. The research method was hemoglobin electrophoresis in agarose gels at alkaline pH. Confirmation by electrophoresis of hemoglobin in agarose gel at acidic pH, both methods using the Hydrasys 2 equipment.

Results:

The overall frequency of pregnant women with hemoglobinopathies was 3.5%. Hemoglobinopathies were detected in 47,465 women; 38,698 with heterozygous S variant, 8,706 hemoglobin C variants and 158 other variants. 44,283 husbands with hemoglobinopathies were detected, 3,099 high-risk couples were detected, and 2,689 molecular prenatal diagnoses were performed. 522 affected fetuses were confirmed and 382 couples requested termination of pregnancy. The program reached 99.24% coverage in the country.

Conclusions:

The detection of hemoglobinopathies in pregnant women residing in Cuba allowed us to know the type of hemoglobinopathy and the frequency of abnormal hemoglobins and new variants, hence the interest in continuing the research program to prevent the appearance of severe forms of the disease.

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