Frequencies of HKαα and anti-HKαα Alleles in Chinese Carriers of Silent Deletional α-Thalassemia.

The HKαα (HongKongαα) allele is an unusual rearrangement of the α-globin gene cluster containing both the -α(3.7) (rightward) and ααα(anti 4.2) crossover deletion/duplication. The anti-HKαα (anti-HongKongαα) allele is the reciprocal product containing both the -α(4.2) (leftward) and ααα(anti 3.7) unequal crossover deletion/duplication. In clinical practice of thalassemia screening, gap-polymerase chain reaction (gap-PCR) approaches are used to detect the common -α(3.7) and -α(4.2) deletions of α-thalassemia (α-thal). Because the HKαα and anti-HKαα alleles also contain the single α-globin gene deletion, individuals with these alleles would be misdiagnosed as -α(3.7) or -α(4.2) carriers. This would likely produce misleading or incorrect information in genetic counseling. In this study, we investigated the HKαα and anti-HKαα alleles in Chinese carriers of silent deletional α-thal, and reported their frequencies to be 2.27 and 0.35% in -α(3.7) and -α(4.2) carriers, respectively. Given the rarity of the HKαα and anti-HKαα alleles, a routine screening for these two rearrangements are unlikely to be necessary on most occasions.