OXYGEN DISSOCIATION CURVES IN SICKLE CELL ANEMIA AND IN SUBJECTS WITH THE SICKLE CELL TRAIT

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Abstract
The O2 dissociation curve of whole blood from 4 cases of sickle cell anemia studied by the in vitro tonometer method was significantly displaced to the right of the dissociation curve of whole blood from 10 normal subjects. The O2 dissociation curve of whole blood from 7 cases of sickle cell trait studied by the same method showed some displacement to the right but this was not of statistical significance. In contrast other workers have shown that the O2 affinities of dialyzed solutions of sickle and normal hemoglobins are similar. This suggests that the difference in the O2 affinities demonstrated in this study are due to dialysable factors in the serum environment of the hemoglobin rather than actual differences in the combining power of these hemoglobins with O2.