ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Silent haemoglobin variants and determination of HbA_1c with the HPLC Bio-Rad Variant II

T Lahousen, R E Roller, R W Lipp and W J Schnedl

Department of Internal Medicine, Karl-Franzens University School of Medicine, Auenbruggerplatz 15, A-8036 Graz, Austria

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr W J Schnedl, Karl-Franzens University, Department of Internal Medicine, Auenbruggerplatz 15, A-8036 Graz, Austria;
wolfgang.schnedl{at}kfunigraz.ac.at

Aims: To evaluate the determination of HbA_1c with an automated high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method in patients with clinically silent haemoglobin variants.

Methods: HbA_1c values were determined with the ion exchange HPL Bio-Rad Variant II using the high resolution ß thalassaemia programme in patients with silent haemoglobin variants, namely: Hb Graz, Hb Sherwood Forest, Hb O Padova, and Hb D.

Results: All of these haemoglobin variants caused additional peaks in the chromatograms. No clinically useful HbA_1c results were produced for patients with Hb Graz and Hb Sherwood Forest, the results for the patient with Hb D were too low, but the results for patients with Hb O Padova were acceptable.

Conclusions: The development of this automated HPLC method modification with high resolution mode aids the identification of interference caused by the described clinically silent haemoglobin variants in HbA_1c determination.

Keywords: glycated haemoglobin; HbA_1c; haemoglobin variants; high performance liquid chromatography

Abbreviations: HbA_1c, glycated haemoglobin; Hb, haemoglobin; HPLC, high performance liquid chromatography

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