Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency in females, diagnosed by partial inhibition of glutathione reductase activity in the erythrocytes after incubation with chromate

Abstract

In the course of an investigation on hereditary blood factors in Surinam Bush-Negro families three different methods for the detection of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency were compared: 1. 1. Direct determination of G6PD activity. 2. 2. The ascorbate-cyanide method. 3. 3. A new test, based on the finding that chromate causes inhibition of glutathione reductase in normal cells but not in G6PD-deficient red cells. The third method appeared to be the most sensitive. With this method the diagnosis was a faulty in 3 out of 40 “proven” heterozygous females, as compared with 21 using the direct estimation of G6PD and 14 with the ascorbate-cyanide method.