We report the coexistence of Hb Camperdown [beta104 (G6) Arg -> Ser] and beta°-thalassemia [beta39 (Gln -> stop codon)] in a nine-month-old Brazilian boy. He had a relatively more severe hypochromic and microcytic anemia in comparison to his mother's beta-thalassemia trait. His Hb Camperdown heterozygous father was clinically and hematologically normal. To our knowledge, this is the first description of an association of beta°-thalassemia with Hb Camperdown.

A família em estudo mostrou a presença de quatro diferentes tipos de hemoglobinas. O membro da família que deu origem ao estudo (propositus) foi identificado como Hb C e o híbrido com Hb CG-phila. O propositus tem três filhos todos portadores de Hb AC; nenhum membro da família apresentou sintomas clínicos. A pesquisa da hemoglobina resultou da existência de hemácias em alvo, no pré-operatório de varizes de membros inferiores. O híbrido Hb CG-phila é constituído por dois pares de genes, mas cada um com expressão inidividual, determinando a síntese e o tipo particular das subunidades. O híbrido Hb CG-phila é formado pela velocidade de combinação das subunidades alfa2G-philabeta2C assim sendo a proporção do híbrido Hb CG-phila é menor do que a Hb G-phila e Hb C. A identificação e caracterização molecular da Hb G-phila mostrou a posição alfa268 Asn->Lys beta2 a Hb C alfa2beta26 Glu->Lys.

The studied family showed the presence of four different types of hemoglobin. The family member who gave rise to this study (=propositus) presented Hb C and the hybrid Hb CG-phila. The propositus has three children, all of which have Hb AC; none of the family members showed any clinical symptoms. The investigation of the hemoglobin arose from the finding of target red cells in a blood test done during the pre-operatory examination for lower limb varicose vein stripping. The hybrid Hb CG-phila is due to two gene pairs, each of which with individual expression, determining the synthesis and the particular type subunits. The hybrid Hb CG-phila is formed by the combination velocity of the subunits alpha2G-philabeta2; therefore the proportion of the hybrid Hb CG-phila is lower than Hb G-phila and Hb C. The identification and molecular characterization of Hb G-phila showed the position alpha268 Asn->Lys beta2 and Hb C showed alpha2beta26 Glu->Lys.