An unusual type of hemoglobinopathy resembling sickle cell-thalassemia disease in a Jamaican family.

Standard hematologic methods were used.2 In vitro sickling tests were carried out using the method of 1)aiand and Castle.’ Fetal hemoglobin was estimated by the alkali denaturation technic of Singer, Chernoff and Singer.’ Filter-paper electrophoresis of hemoglobin was performed in a horizontal tank using barbitone buffer pH 8.6 and ionic strength about 0.02. The technic is described in detail elsewhere.’ A clear separation between hemoglohins A, F and S can be made by this method. In figure 1 the pattern of the mnother ( whose blood contains 24% of fetal hemoglobin ) is significantly different from that of the normal control ( AA ) whose blood contains less than 1% of fetal hemoglobin. A difference can also be seen between the patterns of the son (hemoglobin S -i-24 of hemoglobin F ) and that of a case of sickle cell anemia (55) whose blood contains only 10% of hemnoglohin F.