The most effective way to combat b-thalassemias is to prevent the birth of children with thalassemia major. Therefore, a cost-effective screening method is essential to identify b-thalassemia traits (BTT) and differentiate normal individuals from carriers. We considered five hematological parameters to formulate two separate scoring mechanisms, one for BTT detection, and another for joint determination of hemoglobin E (HbE) trait and BTT by employing decision trees, Naïve Bayes classifier, and Artificial neural network frameworks on data collected from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India. We validated both the scores on two different data sets and found 100% sensitivity of both the scores with their respective threshold values. | A decision support scheme for beta thalassemia and HbE carrier screening
