Simultaneous --SEA, β-thalassaemia and haemoglobinopathy detection through the development of α-thalassaemia early eluting peak

Introduction: Phenotypic screening for α 0 -thalassaemia has been limited, with the Southeast Asian type deletion (-- SEA ) being the only prevalent mutation locally. We pioneered the α-thalassaemia early eluting peak (αEEP) in high-performance liquid chromatography for -- SEA carrier screening. 1,2 We aimed to determine the nature of the αEEP and compare its diagnostic performance with microscopy (HbHi) and immunochromatographic strip test (ICT) in a multicentre setting.