Korean J Lab Med.  2011 Oct;31(4):238-243. 10.3343/kjlm.2011.31.4.238.

Comparison of Capillary Electrophoresis with Cellulose Acetate Electrophoresis for the Screening of Hemoglobinopathies

• Kim JE
• Kim BR
• Woo KS
• Kim JM
• Park JI
• Han JY

• KMID: 1781686
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3343/kjlm.2011.31.4.238

Abstract

BACKGROUND
beta-thalassemia is primarily found in individuals of Mediterranean and Southeast Asian ancestry. With rapid growth in the Southeast Asian segments of the Korean population, the geographic distribution of hemoglobinopathies is expected to become significantly different from what it is today. In this study, Hb fractions were measured in patients with hypochromic microcytosis to detect thalassemia and Hb variants. To evaluate the feasibility of replacing cellulose acetate electrophoresis (CA) with capillary electrophoresis (CE) in a clinical laboratory, both techniques were performed and the outcomes were compared.
METHODS
To evaluate hemoglobinopathies, complete blood cell counts (CBC), CA, and CE were carried out on samples from healthy and microcytic hypochromic groups. The microcytic hypochromic group consisted of 103 patients whose mean corpuscular volume (MCV) was less than 75 fL and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) was less than 24 pg. Quantitative analysis of Hb fractions was performed on 143 whole blood samples.
RESULTS
There was a good correlation for measurements of HbA (r=0.9370, P<0.0001), HbA2 (r=0.8973 P<0.0001), and HbF (r= 0.8010, P=0.0304) between the two methods. In the microcytic hypochromic group, there were 29 cases (28.2%) with decreased HbA2, 2 cases (1.9%) with increased HbA2, 3 cases (2.9%) with increased HbF, and 2 cases (1.9%) with increased HbA2 and HbF.
CONCLUSIONS
CE is comparable to CA for reliable measurement of Hb fractions. It is suitable for screening of hemoglobinopathies in many clinical laboratories.

Keyword

Capillary electrophoresis; Thalassemia; Hemoglobinopathies

MeSH Terms

Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Blood Cell Count
*Electrophoresis, Capillary
*Electrophoresis, Cellulose Acetate
Erythrocyte Indices
Female
Fetal Hemoglobin/analysis
Hemoglobin A/analysis
Hemoglobin A2/analysis
Hemoglobinopathies/*diagnosis
Humans
Male
Middle Aged