MISLEADING PRESENTATION OF HAEMOGLOBIN ELECTROPHORESIS DATA

Abstract

Haemoglobinopathies are common in sub-Saharan Africa. As such haemoglobin electrophoresis are required to in- form clinical decision making. However, haemoglobin electrophoresis is an assay that detects protein at either alka- line or acidic pH. Such assays do not interrogate gene sequences but rather the product of a gene. As many post- transcriptional and post-translational modifications impact the final output of the gene (i.e. protein), presentation of such protein-based assay must accurately reflect the technique employed. It is grossly misleading and scientifically inaccurate to report cellulose acetate and/or citrate agar haemoglobin electrophoresis results as ‘haemoglobin geno- type’. We propose a new paradigm in which haemoglobin electrophoresis data would be presented as ‘haemoglobin phenotype’ at a specified pH.