[Classification of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase enzymopathies: evaluation of kinetic parameters using multivariate methods].

The dependence between 9 kinetic parameters of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase from 13 normal controls and 78 G6PD-deficient patients from the GDR and other socialist countries has been investigated by multivariate statistical methods. Using principal component analysis a two-dimensional presentation of the data was obtained from which similarities between individual enzyme variants became detectable. Conclusions could be drawn in how as far the kinetic parameters contribute to the discrimination between different variants. An objective classification of G6PD-variants was achieved by application of cluster analysis. The proposed methods provide an effective means for differential elucidation of G6PD-enzymopathies and should be also useful in the case of other enzymopathies.