Routine Screening of Umbilical Cord Blood for Sickle Cell Diseases

A routine study of umbilical cord blood specimens by acid agar gel hemoglobin electrophoresis has been shown to be a feasible and an inexpensive screening procedure with a relatively high rate of detection of serious abnormalities. Eight of 756 black and Puerto Rican newborns screened during one year at the Yale-New Haven Hospital had major sickling hemoglobinopathies. Identification of affected infants should permit anticipation and, hopefully, prevention of major catastrophic complications that contribute to the high mortality for sickle cell diseases in the first years of life.