Ricerc@Sapienza

Thermogravimetry coupled with chemometrics has proved to be a rapid and cost effective diagnostic tool for ß-thalassemia screening. This model, consisting of Partial Least Square-Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA), permitted the discrimination of thalassemic patients and healthy individuals, using thermogravimetric curves of blood samples.[1]
In this study, the capability of thermogravimetry in conjuction with a multivariate statistical analysis, was investigated for the screening of hereditary haemolytic anaemias due to different erythrocyte defects. Two groups of anaemias were considered: the hemoglobinopathies (sickle cells anemia and thalassemia) and erythrocyte membrane defects (hereditary elliptocytosis and hereditary spherocytosis).
Whole blood samples from patients with congenital defects were analyzed by the TG7 thermobalance (Perkin Elmer) without any pretreatment and the resulting curves were compared to those typical of healthy individuals. The TG and DTG curves of blood samples from anemic patients were clearly distinct from those of healthy individuals as result of the different amounts of water content and corpuscular fraction.
The chemometric approach based on Principal Components Analysis (PCA) allowed a quick identification of differences between healthy and anemic patients in order to point out a model of prediction in patients with heterogeneous congenital hematological disorders.
Results allow to consider the coupling TGA/Chemometrics as a promising diagnostic approach to provide a high-throughput and sensitive tool to obtain an early detection of hereditary haemolytic anemias.
[1] R. Risoluti, S. Materazzi, F. Sorrentino, L. Maffei, P. Caprari . Thermogravimetric analysis coupled with chemometrics as a powerful predictive tool for ß-thalassemia screening. Talanta 159 (2016) 425-432 DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2016.06.037