Stroke Prevention Strategies in Sickle Cell Disease

Sickle cell disease is a very common hereditary disorder classified as a hemoglobinopathy that affects millions of individuals with high morbidity and mortality. Sickle cell disease is associated with a range of serious complications including vaso-occlusive crisis, anemia, acute aplastic crisis, infection, splenic sequestration crisis, as well as in older children, adolescents and young adults with stroke, cognitive dysfunction, priapism, leg ulcers, avascular necrosis, chronic pain, retinopathy, pulmonary hypertension, acute kidney injury, chronic kidney disease, thromboembolic events and cholelithiasis and cholecystitis. (1) Among all these complications stroke is one of the most severe and life threatening which must be prevented through careful evaluation of various parameters stated by literature such as hemolysis, hemoglobin, and absolute neutrophil count. (2) “Transcranial Doppler ultrasound is a validated screening tool to identify pediatric SCD patients with the highest risk of stroke” (3) and apply preventive strategies. Our aim was to investigate the relationship between cerebral hemodynamics and hematological and biochemical markers to better understand the clinical manifestations of sickle cell disease and guide physicians to reduce the risk of stroke.