[Hemoglobin variants in Colombian patients referred to discard hemoglobinopathies].

BACKGROUND

Oxygen transport is altered in hemoglobinopathies.

AIM: To study the distribution of hemoglobinopathies in Andean subjects without African ancestry.

MATERIAL AND

METHODS

We analyzed blood samples of 1,407 subjects aged 18 to 59 years (58% females), living in the central Andean region of Colombia, referred to discard hemoglobinopathies. The frequency and type of hemoglobinopathy was established by capillary and agarose gel electrophoresis.

RESULTS

The frequency of hemoglobinopathies was 34.5% and higher among females. The structural variants found were: AS-heterozygous hemoglobin (8.1%), homozygous SS (3.7%), heterozygous SC (2.2%), AC heterozygotes (0.5%) and heterozygous AE (0.3%). Quantitative variants found were Hb A-Beta thalassemia (13.91%) and Hb H (0.06%), Beta-thalassemia heterozygotes C (0.88%), S-Beta thalassemia heterozygotes (6.07%) and compound heterozygous SC/Beta thalassemia (0.25%), with a persistence of fetal hemoglobin 0. Composite thalassemia was also found in 31%. All techniques showed good correlation and capillary electrophoresis demonstrated a greater detection of hemoglobin variants.

CONCLUSIONS

The frequency of hemoglobin variants in the analyzed population was high, which is an important public health indicator. The most common hemoglobin variant was HbA/Increased structural Hb A2 and the mos frequent structural hemoglobinopathy was sickle cell trait. Capillary electrophoresis can discern any Hb variants present in the population.