Improved rapid procedure for simultaneous determinations of hemoglobins A1a, A1b, A1c, F, C, and S, with indication for acetylation or carbamylation by cation-exchange liquid chromatography.

Although the clinical utility of glycohemoglobin (HbA1c) as an indicator of blood glucose control is generally accepted, the use of cation-exchange liquid chromatography for its quantification is controversial, given numerous studies that show no correlation between HbA1c and other indicators of blood glucose control in uremic subjects. We report a specific cation-exchange liquid-chromatographic method that measures simultaneously HbA1a, HbA1b, HbA1c, HbF, HbA0, HbC, and HbS quickly and reproducibly. Carbamylation or acetylation is indicated by extra peaks. Carbamylated hemoglobin increased the result for HbA1c by as much as 1% above the nonuremic value. The method is a fast (approximately 15 min per sample), easy to perform, reproducible, and sensitive screening method for abnormal hemoglobins. Within-assay CVs were < 0.7% in all cases and between-assay CVs were < 1.4%.