At the beginning of the study, 29 mL of peripheral blood was
collected once from normal subjects and twice from β-thalassemia/
Hb E patients at 2 week interval as baseline. Two milliliters of those
was used to analyze complete blood counts and serum from 7 mL
clotted blood was used to measure liver and renal function tests, lipid
profiles, uric acid, ferritin, and NTBI. The remaining blood in EDTAcoated
tubes was centrifuged at 1000×g for 10 min at 4 °C. The packed
red cells were washed three times with cold phosphate buffered
saline (PBS), pH 7.4. Cells were diluted to 50% hematocrit with the
same buffer and analyzed oxidative stress and antioxidant parameters
in red blood cells.