[Hereditary elliptocytosis caused by a spectrin deficiency (Sp alpha I/46). 1st patient described in Cuba].

We report biochemical studies of membrane proteins performed in a patient with hereditary elliptocytosis (HE). The presence of 90% of elliptocytes on wet smears of glutaraldehyde-fixed cells, the increased red cell thermal sensitivity, the normal erythrocyte membrane electrophoresis, the increased spectrin dimer in the 4 degrees C extract (35%) and the 46 Kd peptide present in electrophoresis after limited tryptic digestion of spectrin, allows us to classify this disorder as type I HE. The patient has common HE with compensated mild hemolysis. This is the first case of HE with alpha chain molecular variant of spectrin found in a Cuban population.