This article explores the basis of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and defines the role that health care informatics can play in optimal treatment.

T HE MEDITERRANEAN variety of glucose-6phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is characterized by severely decreased catalytic activity in the affected erythrocytes and is therefore classified as belonging to class II in the usual tabulations of G6PD variants.’ However, evidence has been provided that in Mediterranean countries there are several polymorphic G6PD variants sharing activity lev...

In southern China, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency is a significant health problem, and the incidence ranged from 0.5 to 4.08% in different Chinese population. The aims of this study are to investigate the molecular epidemiological characteristic of the G6PD gene among Chinese Hakka in southern Jiangxi province. 2331 unrelated subjects were screened for G6PD deficiency by a ...

A new variant of G6PD associated with chronic non-spherocytic haemolytic anaemia (CNSHA) in an Irish male is described. This variant is unique in that it has a normal electrophoretic mobility, Michaelis constant for G6P and NADP, and a normal pH optimum, together with a marked increase in utilisation of the substrate 2 deoxy glucose-6-phosphate. It is also relatively heat stable when compared w...

Glucose-6-phosphatase activity has been determined in periportal and pericentral zones of the rat liver lobule using a quantitative histochemical method. The study was performed on unfixed cryostat sections of livers from fasted and fed female and male rats. Highest activity was found in periportal zones, and starvation caused a 2-3-fold increase of glucose-6-phosphatase activity in periportal ...

Primaquine is the only available drug for preventing relapse of malaria, and confusion surrounds its use. This review examines the wide range of clinical applications of primaquine described in the medical literature between 1946 and 2004. The risk of relapse of Plasmodium vivax malaria without primaquine therapy ranged from 5% to 80% or more, depending largely upon geographic location. Supervi...

Hepatic microsomal glucose-6-phosphatase activity was rendered extremely unstable by a variety of techniques: (a) incubation at pH 5.0; (b) extraction of the microsomal fraction in the presence of 1% Lubrol; (c) various purification procedures. These techniques all result in the removal of a 21 kDa polypeptide from the fraction containing glucose-6-phosphatase activity. The 21 kDa protein was p...

The induction of the hexose-6-phosphate transport system was investigated. Glucose-6-phosphate (G6P) at concentrations as low as 10(-4)m was able to induce this system in wild-type cells, as well as in mutants lacking phosphoglucose isomerase or G6P dehydrogenase. Growth in the presence of fructose-6-phosphate (F6P) induced the system only if the cells contained phosphoglucose isomerase. Furthe...