1 State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, 450 Clarkson Ave. Brooklyn, New York 11203
While we are aware of the G-6-PD variants, we have not done the specific tests on our patients. Actually, all of the patients with low G-6-PD activity, irrespective of whether they developed hemolysis or not, were Negroes and, therefore, could be classified as B(-) variant. As far as we know this variant had not been implicated in relation to favism or severe neonatal jaundice.
The enzyme variant had also not been specified for the group of patients reported by Kattamis, et al. We agree that factors beside G-6-PD must play a role in hemolytic anemias due to viral or bacterial infections.