Haptoglobin, hemopexin, hemoglobin and hematocrit in newborns with erythrocyte glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency.

Hemolysis was studied in 40 G-6-PD-deficient newborn infants, half of whom had bilirubin blood levels within the normal range whereas the others, who were hyperbilirubinemic, underwent exchange transfusion. Hemoglobin, hematocrit, hemopexin and haptoglobin showed no or little differences between either of the two groups and the controls. The findings confirm the authors' assumption expressed elsewhere that this form of hyperbilirubinemia is not hemolytic in nature.