Newborn Sickle Cell Disease Screening Using Electrospray Tandem Mass Spectrometry

There is a growing demand for newborn sickle cell disease screening globally. Historically techniques have relied on the separation of intact haemoglobin tetramers using electrophoretic or liquid chromatography techniques. These techniques also identify haemoglobin variants of no clinical significance. Specific electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry-mass spectrometry techniques to analyse targeted peptides formed after digestion of the haemoglobin with trypsin were reported in 2005. Since this time the method has been further developed and adopted in several European countries. It is estimated that more than one million babies have been screened with no false-negative cases reported. This review reports on the current use of the technique and reviews the related publications.