HbH red cell inclusion bodies are precipitated beta-chain tetramers which can indicate a diagnosis of alpha thalassaemia. In alpha thalassaemia trait eg (-a /-a) or (- -/ aa), only a very occasional H body is seen (1: 1000 to 1: 10000 red cells),and microscopic review of a Brilliant Cresyl Blue stained smear may take up to 30 minutes to scan in order to diagnose an alpha thalassaemia, although a negative H-Body smear does not entirely exclude an alpha thalassaemia.
In order to make this process more time productive, we evaluated the use of an immuno-chromatographic kit (IC) (I+MED Alpha Thal Kit) which incorporates a monoclonal antibody to Hb-Barts, which is found in the blood of patients with alpha-thalassaemia. The IC Alpha Thal test takes approximately 5 minutes to get a result.
This study represents local data from our institution where we compared results between our H-body stain method and the IC method on a series of routine patient requests run through our haemoglobinopathy section , with a view to replacing the historic time challenged Brilliant Cresyl Blue staining method.
This study formed part of a multicentre international study (Manuscript currently in review).