A Simple Visual Screening Test for Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency Employing Ascorbate and Cyanide

Abstract

HYPERSUSCEPTIBILITY to the hemolytic effects of such oxidant compounds as primaquine, acetylphenylhydrazine and sulfonamides may exist for a number of reasons, by far the most common of which is deficiency in the enzyme glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD). Although this enzyme deficiency is best identified by quantitative assay, a number of presumptive, or screening, tests have been devised that are better suited to routine hematologic laboratories. These include the procedures originated by Beutler and his associates in which the representative hemolytic compound, acetylphenylhydrazine, was incubated with suspect blood and the red cells were examined for the number of Heinz bodies¹ or for . . .