Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency in Sickle-Cell Disease

Excerpt

To the editor: I read with interest the article, "Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase Deficiency in Sickle-Cell Anemia," by Steinberg and Dreiling (Ann Intern Med 80:217-220 1974). Among their patients with sickle-cell disease they could not find the increased prevalence of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency previously reported by others, most recently Piomelli and associates (1). Steinberg and Dreiling very nicely list the possible reasons for their negative findings. It may turn out that in some populations there is a significantly higher prevalence of G6PD deficiency. For such populations the speculation that the concurrent presence of G6PD deficiency somehow tempers the effects of