SCREENING A NEWBORN POPULATION FOR HEMOGLOBIN SS BY QUANTITATIVE IMMUNODIFFUSION

Abstract

This study was undertaken to evaluate a simple and efficient radial immunodiffusion test system for quantifying hemoglobins S and F in cord blood of newborn infants. In earlier studies specific goat anti-S and specific rabbit anti-F sera were shown to be adequate for quantifying hemoglobins S and F in mixed proportions simulating those anticipated in newborn infants with hemoglobin AS or SS. To date 107 cord blood specimens from black infants have been tested for relative quantities of hemoglobins S and F. The mean relative quantity of F was 86.3% ± 10.6 S.D. In 15 of these specimens S was detected with a mean relative quantity of 6.31 ± 2.5 S.D. This technique presently can serve as a convenient screening device with identification of SS among positives by the more cumbersome agar gel electrophoresis technique. Continuing work will compare the percent concordance between diagnoses of AS and SS by these two methods.