Evaluation of hemolysis effect on hemoglobin measurement by capillary electrophoresis

Background Hemoglobin (Hb) is a hemeprotein with two linked pairs of globin chains. Each chain is connected to a heme residue in its center. Hemoglobinopathies are divided into quantitative and qualitative defects in globin synthesis. Hemolysis is a pre-analytical problem that reduces quality of sample for measurement of many analytes.

Methods Blood samples from 311 female and 189 male subjects with normal and abnormal Hb electrophoresis patterns were studied. Three milliliters of whole blood was obtained from all subjects and transferred into EDTA tubes. To analyze hemolysis, 1.5 ml of blood from each tube was aliquoted and frozen, and the remaining blood was stored at 4 °C for 24 h. Hemoglobin was measured in both hemolyzed and non-hemolyzed samples by capillary electrophoresis.

Results and discussion Data was analyzed with linear regression. The results were linear for the lower limit of detection of 9, 0.5, and 0.1% up to at least 99.5, 6.6, and 99.4% for HbA, HbA₂, and HbF, respectively. Method comparison demonstrated good agreement between non-hemolyzed and hemolyzed conditions for hemoglobin measurement.

ConclusionUse of hemolyzed samples had no effected on hemoglobin measurements.