A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE CHARACTERISTICS OF JAMAICAN ADULTS WITH NORMAL HEMOGLOBIN AND THOSE WITH SICKLE CELL TRAIT1

comparison between the characteristics of Jamaican adults with normal hemo-globin and thote with sickle cell trait. Amer. J. Epid., 1969, 90: 236-243.—In surveys of representative samples of Jamaicans aged 3 5- 6 4 years living in rural and suburban communities, no significant differences in heights, weights, hema-tological indices, cardiothoracic ratios, blood pressures, glycosuria, proteinuria, parity or electrocardiographic abnormalities were apparent between 167 sub-jects with the sickle cell trait, AS, and 1,282 subjects with normal hemoglobin, AA. Older women with the trait had a significantly higher prevalence of bacte-riuria without other evidence of urinary tract pathology. The findings suggest that the trait is not appreciably associated with chronic disease. anemia, sickle cell; bacteriuria; blood pressure; epidemiology; hemoglobin; sickle cell trait The sickle cell trait, the heterozygous state for the abnormal hemoglobin S, is believed to be asymptomatic unless circum-stances are exceptional. As long ago as 1933, children with the trait in the United States were found to have the same mean hemo-globin levels as an ethnically matched control group of children without the trait (1). There is evidence, however, that the kidneys may be affected. Renal concen-trating power in subjects with the trait may be less than in those with normal hemo-globin (2-4). Unexplained hematuria asso-ciated with the trait has been found in the United States (5, 6) and in Jamaica (7). A relationship between renal papillary necrosis and the trait has been reporte