| Early Sickle Cell Complications Don't Predict Later Risk -
19-03-2007, 11:01 AM
-- Children with sickle cell disease who suffer major complications, such as lung disease or pain early in life, are not at increased risk for stroke or death later in childhood, U.S. researchers say.
Conducted by scientists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, the study also concluded that infants and toddlers with sickle cell disease who have pain episodes or dactylitis -- painful swelling in the feet and hands -- are not at increased risk of suffering those symptoms again later in childhood.
However, young children with the disease who are hospitalized for chest problems are more likely to have a recurrence of those problems up to adulthood, the study said.
The findings were published in the January issue of the journal Blood.
For this study, researchers looked at data from 264 children with sickle cell disease who were followed from birth through their teenage years. The findings add to efforts to identify predictors that can forecast how the disease will progress as children age.
"Everybody who has sickle cell disease is affected differently by the disease. Some seem to have a lot of problems with pain and lung disease, and some have very few problems and may have a normal life span. We really don't understand why everyone with the same disease can be so different," lead author Dr. Charles Quinn, assistant professor of pediatrics at the UT medical center, said in a prepared statement.
This makes it difficult to counsel parents of infants with the disease.
"We can't give them very much in the way of specifics, exactly what this child will likely go through or what to expect from the disease in the future," said Quinn, who is also a pediatric hematology specialist at Children's Medical Center Dallas.
It's estimated that at least 70,000 Americans have the genetic disease. Instead of soft, round red blood cells that carry oxygen through the body, people with sickle cell disease have inflexible, sickle-shaped red blood cells that cause blockages in blood vessels and prevent body tissues from receiving oxygen.  | 
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