Abstract
Based in the parish of Manchester in central Jamaica, the Manchester Project offered free detection of haemoglobin genotype to senior classes in 15 secondary schools between 2008 and 2013. Restricting the database to 15,103 students aged 15.0–19.9 years provided an opportunity to examine the red cell characteristics of the different haemoglobin genotypes, including normal (HbAA) in 85.0%, the sickle cell trait (HbAS) in 9.7%, HbC trait (HbAC) in 3.5% and hereditary persistence of foetal haemoglobin (HbA-HPFH) in 0.4%. Compared to the normal HbAA phenotype, HbAS had significantly increased mean cell haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), red cell count (RBC), and red cell distribution width (RDW) and decreased mean cell volume (MCV) and mean cell haemoglobin (MCH), these differences being even more marked in HbAC. Compared to HbAA, the HbA-HPFH had significantly increased RDW, but there were no consistent differences in other red cell indices, and there were no significant differences in haematological indices between the two common deletion HPFH variants, HPFH-1 and HPFH-2. Although these changes are unlikely to be clinically significant, they contribute to an understanding of the haematological spectrum of the common haemoglobin genotypes in peoples of African origin.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the National Health Fund of Jamaica under Grant HPP70 and by Jamalco
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School screening was supported by the National Health Fund of Jamaica and Jamalco.
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GRS, BES, KM conceived the study, GRS, BES, KM, FG analysed haematology and electrophoresis, CO performed statistical analysis, SL analysed the HPFH variants. All approved the submitted version.
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All students were given letters for the parents allowing exclusion from blood tests. All participation of the students was voluntary.
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Serjeant GR, Serjeant BE, Mason KP, Gibson F, Osmond C, Thein SL, Happich M, Kulozik A declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Serjeant, G.R., Serjeant, B.E., Mason, K.P. et al. The haematology of Jamaicans: red cell indices in HbAA, HbAS, HbAC, and HbA-HPFH genotypes. J Community Genet 13, 229–234 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-021-00575-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12687-021-00575-8