We conclude that the clinically significant and unpredictable discrepancies of CAE+densitometric vis-à-vis HPLC-measured Hb fraction levels clearly render the former technique unreliable for screening of βTT (10.6% over and 28.6% under diagnoses). Although electrophoresis remains valuable for qualitative detection of variant Hbs, its use as a quantitative screening technique (without elution and spectrometry) is undesirable in clinical prac- tice in communities with high prevalence of βTT.