An improved acidified glycerol lysis test (AGLT) used to detect spherocytes in pregnancy

The acidified glycerol lysis test (Zanella et al, 1980) had proved unreliable in our hands. We now report the test to be stable and reliable when conducted at 37 degrees C rather than at ambient laboratory temperature as used by earlier workers. With this modification, blood samples were tested from 167 pregnant subjects. Forty-eight were less than 26 weeks pregnant and gave normal AGLT values (T50 greater than 1800 s) while of 119 more than 26 weeks pregnant 57 (48%) gave shortened T50 values indicative of the presence of spherocytes.

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