Spectrin/band 3 ratio as diagnostic tool in hereditary spherocytosis

Recently it has been clearly established that partial deficiency of spectrin (SP) evaluated by radioimmunoassay is a common feature of many different forms of hereditary spherocytosis (HS). In this paper the determination of SP density (spectrin/band 3 ratio) in 46 HS patients and in 50 normal controls is presented. The comparison between the membrane SP density of HS subjects and controls showed a statistically significant difference (P less than 0.0005). Moreover no overlap between normal and HS subjects was observed. Membrane spectrin/band 3 ratio has been found related to some clinical features: indeed patients with severe HS showed a smaller SP density than those with milder HS. Our results show that the evaluation of membrane SP density permits a prompt diagnosis of HS and avoids extensive and unnecessary studies for other anaemias.