**8. Identification of β-thalassemia and HbE by ARMS-PCR**

ARMS-PCR was established by Old et al. [79]. This technique also uses three oligonucleotide primers. However, the length of normal and mutant primers is similar. Therefore, size of normal and mutant amplified products is the same and cannot be separated in the agarose gel electrophoresis. Thus, two PCRs must be performed in the ARMS-PCR. Both PCRs have the same ingredients, except normal and mutant oligonucleotide primers are added in separated reaction tubes (M and N-tube). In addition, a pair of oligonucleotide primers specific to other gene must also be added into both PCRs. The amplified products obtained by this pair of primers are the internal control for the ARMS-PCR.
