The term hemoglobinopathies refers to a group of diseases associated with disorders of globin
synthesis, that form the structure of the hemoglobin molecule (Hb) with heme. The first step in diagnosing hemoglobinopathy is a hemoglobin test. It is performed by Hb electrophoresis, which determines the presence of its variants in the tested samples.
As part of the master's thesis, we wanted to show a comparison of performed electrophoresis tests of hemogobin and the number of detected variants during each month in the period from January 2018 to December 2020. In total, we retrospectively analyzed 1061 electrophoresis hemoglobin profiles, of which 312 from 2018, 455 from 2019 and 294 from 2020. Of all analyzed results, 24,4 % were outside the reference interval.
During the review of the results, we came across different variants of Hb: S, E, D, Lepore and presented our results with the help of images generated by the apparatus with which the analyzes were performed. The discovered variants are associated with certain diseases. Among these, sickle cell anemia due to the presence of HbS variant is the best known.
Today, we also have a test avaliable to detect potential carriers of genes for hemoglobinopathies, which are primarly inherited disorders, and in addition, we can already test the fetus to determine if it is affected by hemoglobinopathy. Altough they are rare diseases, they need to be monitored, as the incidence of hemoglobinopathies has recently increased in European countries due to the increased number of migrations and shared asylum.
|