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A mild anemia (hemoglobin 9 g/dl) was found in a patient from Seville (Spain) with marked morphological abnormalities in the peripheral blood smear. The red cell osmotic fragility showed a mild resistance curve with a mean cell fragility (MCF) of 0.375% NaCl (normal = 0.450). Chemical Chemical and thermal instability test and search for inclusion bodies gave positive results. Hemoglobin electrophoresis at pH 8.9 revealed absence of Hb A, a major component of fast mobility (94%), and increased Hb F and Hb A2 levels (1.5% and 4.6%, respectively). The fast fraction, isolated and purified by means of cellulose acetate electrophoresis, precipitated in acid acetone and treated with urea 8 M and mercaptoethanol, revealed an anomalous beta chain. Trypsin-digested globin peptides were separated by high-voltage electrophoresis at pH 6.4 and ascendant chromatography. With differential staining, an extra peptide was detected in an unusual site, more anodic than alpha Tp4 but in lower position. Peptide map of the fast beta chain, stained with ninhydrin, and also for Tyr, confirmed the position of the new peptide and the absence of the usual beta Tp13. The new peptide, separated by high-voltage electrophoresis at pH 3.5, revealed absence of Val and the presence of an additional Glu residue, which should appear only in position beta 126. The diagnosis of Hb Hofu (alpha 2 beta 2 126 Val----Glu; H4) was reached, thus interpreting its increase and the absence of Hb A, as an association with beta o-thalassemia, producing a mild hemolytic anemia. Evidence was obtained that Hb Hofu is a mild unstable hemoglobin variant.

In a survey on listeriosis in Peru a study was made of 653 stool samples; material from 8 cases of perinatal death, in which a macroscopic diagnosis of listeriosis had been made at autopsy; 1 sample of vaginal secretion from a woman with abortion due to listeriosis; and 1 case of abscess which turned out to be an hematometra. The following results have been obtained: 1. From the faeces 7 isolates of Listeria (1.07%) were obtained: 3 belonged to L. monocytogenes serovar 4ab, 3 to L. innocua (the former "4g"--nownow serovar 6b) and 1 to L. monocytogenes serovar 4a. 2. The 8 strains of autopsy materials belonged to L. monocytogenes: 6 serovar 4b and 2 serovar 4d. 3. From the vaginal secretion L. monocytogenes serovar 4b was cultured. 4. The strain from the hematometra was identified as L. monocytogenes serovar 4b. The serovars 4a, 4ab and 4d are at this time the only ones identified in Peru as cause of human listeriosis. The serovars of serogroup 1/2 frequent in Western and primarily in Central Europe, were so far never cultivated.

Two hundred forty-one strains of Salmonella typhii isolated in Lima, Peru, from October 1981 through February 1983 were tested for susceptibility to antimicrobial agents. Seventy-two strains (29.9%) were resistant to chloramphenicol and other antibiotics, including ampicillin, sulfonamides, and trimethoprim. The minimal inhibitory concentrations of 17 antimicrobial agents were determined for all of these chloramphenicol-resistant strains. Sch 25393, new beta-lactams, new quinolones, and the formulation clavulanic acid-amoxicillin were effective against all the strains. Four different resistance patterns distributed among eight phage types were observed. The 72 resistant S. typhi could transfer the resistance marker into Escherichia coli C1, and all the plasmids belonged to the incompatibility group H1.