Rare Alpha hemoglobinopathies in Kermanshah Reference Laboratory; Report of Cases Along with Diagnostic Tips

Hemoglobinopathies are a group of qualitative hemoglobin disorders which also happen to be very common in Iran. Some of these cases have severe clinical symptoms and others have none. Specific hemoglobinopathies are seen in certain ethnicities and can also lead to misdiagnosis and misinterpretation by similar electrophoretic motion to other hemoglobin variants.

Case Report:

 In this article, three patients with rare hemoglobinopathies named Hb Arya, Hb Q-Iran, Setif and two cases of Hb Constant Spring who were referred to Kermanshah Reference Laboratory have been studied and discussed. These hemoglobinopathies are caused by mutations in the alpha chain of hemoglobin, and in addition, Arya and Q-Iran hemoglobinopahies-can interfere with the interpretation of other clinically significant hemoglobinopathies. Hemoglobin Setif can move on electrophoresis similar to hemoglobin S, and its sickling test is a false positive. Finally, hemoglobin Cs could cause more severe hemoglobin H disease if it combines with deletional alpha thalassemia.

Therefore, accurate evaluation of these hemoglobinopathies can prevent further problems.