Inaccuracy of high-performance liquid chromatography estimation of haemoglobin F in the presence of increased haemoglobin A1c.
Increasingly high-performance liquid chromatography is being used for identification and quantification of normal and variant haemoglobins. In many laboratories, the Beta Thal Short programme of the Bio-Rad Variant II instrument is used for this purpose. We noted that a factitious elevation of haemoglobin F was sometimes observed in diabetic patients and therefore carried out a systematic study of this phenomenon. We found discrepant results in 41% of samples from diabetic patients but in no normal volunteers. This factitious elevation could be predicted from a retention time for haemoglobin F of more than 1.15 min, the normal retention time being 1.08-1.15 min. Haemoglobinopathy laboratories need to be alert to the possibility of this erroneous result.
Grey
V
V
Department of Haematology, St Mary's Hospital, London, UK.
Wilkinson
M
M
Phelan
L
L
Hughes
C
C
Bain
B J
BJ
D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D005319:Fetal Hemoglobin / Q000032:analysis*; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
D005319:Fetal Hemoglobin; D006442:Glycated Hemoglobin; D006454:Hemoglobins; C517652:hemoglobin A1c protein, human