Diagnostic utility of the pre‐incubated acidified glycerol lysis test in haemolytic and non‐haemolytic anaemias

The usefulness of the pre-incubated acidified glycerol lysis test (AGLT), a laboratory test for spherocytosis, has been investigated in a selected hospital population of 348 patients with haemolytic and non-haemolytic anaemia. The AGLT was positive in 58 out of 59 patients with hereditary spherocytosis. In all 32 patients with other types of hereditary haemolytic anaemia the AGLT was normal or equivocal, but clearly different from spherocytosis. Adults with a positive AGLT, but without hereditary spherocytosis, had auto-immune haemolytic anaemia, myelodysplastic syndrome or were pregnant women. In newborn infants the AGLT was positive, in the first week of life, in those babies having hereditary spherocytosis or immune haemolysis due to blood group incompatibility; no positive AGLT results were seen if no haematological explanation for neonatal hyperbilirubinaemia could be found. At the optimal cut-off point the sensitivity of the AGLT for hereditary spherocytosis was 98.3% and the specificity 91.1%, under the most unfavourable conditions. The AGLT is a very useful and simple test for the diagnosis of hereditary spherocytosis.