Abstract:
Haemoglobinopathies are common in sub-Saharan Africa. As such haemoglobin electrophoresis are required to in-
form clinical decision making. However, haemoglobin electrophoresis is an assay that detects protein at either alka-
line or acidic pH. Such assays do not interrogate gene sequences but rather the product of a gene. As many post-
transcriptional and post-translational modifications impact the final output of the gene (i.e. protein), presentation of
such protein-based assay must accurately reflect the technique employed. It is grossly misleading and scientifically
inaccurate to report cellulose acetate and/or citrate agar haemoglobin electrophoresis results as ‘haemoglobin geno-
type’. We propose a new paradigm in which haemoglobin electrophoresis data would be presented as ‘haemoglobin
phenotype’ at a specified pH.
