Sickle-Cell Anemia and Other Hemoglobinopathies: Procedures and Strategy for Screening Employing Spots of Blood on Filter Paper as Specimens

Since blood spots on filter paper are routinely collected in many areas for phenylketonuria testing of newborn infants, we developed several methods for detecting sickle-cell disease and other hemoglobinopathies using this type of specimen. Simple, inexpensive modifications of cellulose acetate electrophoresis plus citrate-agar and globin-chain electrophoresis are employed, permitting one technician to screen as many as 500 specimens per day at a material cost of $0.03 per specimen. DRIED blood specimens on filter-paper cards are employed in Guthrie's bacterial inhibition assay for phenylketonuria¹ as well as in testing for other disorders.² We devised a simple method for detecting hemoglobinopathies designed to employ blood spots on filter paper. Previous methods using this type of specimen from adults³,⁴ were unsuitable for screening newborn infants, at least in our hands, because hemoglobin S is not adequately resolved from hemoglobin F. By using a new hemolysing reagent for elution from filter-paper disks, we have adapted cellulose acetate electrophoresis as a screening procedure. A reasonably strong diagnosis can be made without further recourse.