Patent ID: 8623659

Claim:
A method for determining sickle-cell zygosity in a subject, comprising: a) determining a subject's blood hematocrit; b) forming a first solution comprising a volume of blood from the subject, the volume of the blood determined according to the subject's hematocrit as set forth in Table 1, and 4 milliliters of a phosphate buffer, comprising a detergent, and a reducing agent; c) determining the presence or absence of turbidity in the first solution after about 6 minutes; d) subjecting the first solution to centrifugation to form a second solution and a supernatant the second solution comprising a band of material floating on the second solution; e) filtering the second solution to form a filtrate and a precipitate; f) taking a color reading of the band of material floating on the second solution, measuring the absorbance of the filtrate and determining the amount of the precipitate on a 1 to 4 Likert scale; and g) diagnosing the subject as negative for sickle-cell if the turbidity of the first solution is absent, or the band of floating material is white, or the absorbance of the filtrate is from about 0.7 or greater, or if the amount of the precipitate is 0; h) diagnosing the subject as heterozygous for sickle-cell if turbidity in the first solution is present, or the band of floating material is red, and either the absorbance of the filtrate is from about 0.4 to about 0.7, or if the amount of the precipitate is from 1 to 3; i) diagnosing the subject as homozygous for sickle-cell if turbidity in the first solution is present, or the band of floating material is red, and either the absorbance of the filtrate is from about 0.4 or less or if the amount of the precipitate is 4.