Hb Albany-Suma (alpha 11 [A9] Lys----Asn), a hemoglobin variant with slightly elevated oxygen affinity in Japan

A fast-moving abnormal hemoglobin was detected in a heterozygous condition from a patient with benign goiter. The hemoglobin has a slight but significant high oxygen affinity. The patient does not show any hematologic abnormality. Structural analysis indicated that a lysine residue normally present at alpha 11 was substituted by an asparagine residue. This substitution which has not been described previously was discovered coincidentally by another laboratory (1). The new variant has been named Hb Albany-Suma to denote the origin of the variant in both the United States and Japan.