Haemoglobin Marseille-Long Island and interpretation of HbA1c: which HbA1c result is the "right answer"?

Florkowski, C M; Walmsley, T A; Brennan, S O; George, P M · Postgrad Med J · 2003

case_report · Level V

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Abstract

A woman was screened for diabetes using glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c). Vastly different results were obtained by high performance liquid chromatography (45%), immunoassay (2.9%), and affinity chromatography (4.2%) compared with the non-diabetic range of less than 6.4%. Mass spectral studies confirmed the presence a haemoglobin variant, haemoglobin Marseille-Long Island which had confounded interpretation by all methods.

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