Hemoglobin Barts

The Barts hemoglobin consists of four gamma chains . It is poorly soluble and therefore accumulates in the red blood cells . In addition, it has an extremely high affinity for oxygen, which means that there is almost no oxygen left in the tissue. Barts hemoglobin is produced in the case of α-thalassemia ; in the most serious form of this disease, it is the only type of hemoglobin left in the body. In this situation, hydrops fetalis would develop and it would normally die before or shortly after birth, unless an intrauterine blood transfusion is performed.

Since alpha thalassemia increases Bart's hemoglobin , it can, as a measured value, be very helpful in a useful screening test for this disease.

This variant of hemoglobin was so named because it was discovered in St Bartholomew's Hospital in London. The hospital is nicknamed “St. Barts ”, so that hemoglobin was finally called Hemoglobin Barts.

Individual evidence

↑ FP van der Dijs, M. Volmer, DG van Gijssel-Wiersma, JW Smit, R. van Veen & FA Muskiet: Predictive value of cord blood hematological indices and hemoglobin Barts for the detection of heterozygous alpha-thalassemia-2 in an African -Caribbean population . In: Clinical chemistry . 45, No. 9, September 1999, pp. 1495-1500. PMID 10471652 .

[1] FP van der Dijs, M. Volmer, DG van Gijssel-Wiersma, JW Smit, R. van Veen & FA Muskiet: Predictive value of cord blood hematological indices and hemoglobin Barts for the detection of heterozygous alpha-thalassemia-2 in an African -Caribbean population . In: Clinical chemistry . 45, No. 9, September 1999, pp. 1495-1500. PMID 10471652 .