Rapid method for diagnosing the various forms of alpha-thalassemia (U.S. Patent Number 6,322,981)

The present invention relates to the simultaneous and specific identification of the variant forms of α-thalassemia. This invention utilizes simple and readily available equipment to rapidly identify, diagnose and differentiate the different forms of α-thalassemia. Specifically, the present invention relates to a simple and rapid non-radioisotopic technique for the diagnosis and differentiation of the common forms of α-thalassemia has been developed. This approach works on any biological tissue including blood, wherein the assay works equally well with fresh blood and dried blood samples stored on filter paper.