AN EVALUATION OF HEMOGLOBIN DETERMINATION USING SODIUM LAURYL SULFATE

The standard reference method for hemoglobin determination for years h as been the photometric quantitation of cyanmethemoglobin. Other exist ing methods have not gained popularity in North America. In an attempt to eliminate hazardous cyanide waste, a method to determine the hemog lobin concentration in whole blood using sodium lauryl sulfate has bee n devised and recently was released as a commercial reagent. The autho rs compare this new method with the cyanmethemoglobin method using two hematology analyzers. Their results show that there is excellent corr elation between the two methods (r2 = 0.996). In addition, other eleme nts of the complete blood count also show good correlation. 'rhus, it was confirmed that the sodium lauryl sulfate method of estimating hemo globin concentration is an appropriate alternative to the cyanmethemog lobin method and avoids the generation of toxic wastes.