Sickle Cell Disease Risk Factors and Complications, What Do We Know?
More Programs and Publications Featuring Dr. Seethal Jacob
In this program:
For sickle cell disease, what's known about risk factors and complications? Watch as expert Dr. Seethal Jacob shares potential SCD complications and symptoms to be on guard against for patient care.
Transcript
Interviewer:
Are you able to share with us the known risk factors seen in sickle cell disease?
Dr. Seethal Jacob:
Absolutely. Probably the most common complications that we see in sickle cell disease are anemia. So having a very low hemoglobin level, that anemia is caused by the hemolysis that we see in sickle cell disease, meaning the breakdown of our red blood cells. That breakdown of the red blood cells leads to anemia, like I just mentioned, but can also result in some of the other complications that we see in sickle cell like jaundice, like severe pain, kidney disorders, also retinopathy or complications with the eye, stroke and many others.
Interviewer:
What are some of the complications that you believe are most persistent with sickle cell disease and trait?
Dr. Seethal Jacob:
Absolutely, so for sickle cell trait, there are some rare complications that can be seen, not in everyone, and usually under extreme circumstances, things like a slightly increased risk for infarction or loss of blood supply to the spleen, that can be extremely painful. There's also a slightly increased risk for a particular type of kidney cancer, and I say slightly, because we're talking about the difference of about 1 percent in the general population to anywhere from 2 to 4 percent in individuals who have sickle cell trait. These complications, like I said, are not universally seen in sickle cell trait, it is rare, and if complications like splenic infarctions are seen, it's under extreme circumstances like mountain climbing or boot camp in the military, things like that. In sickle cell disease, the complications that we most commonly hear about, number one, of course, is pain. So vaso-occlusive pain crises. It's the most common reason our patients present to clinic or the emergency department, it's the most common reason that they're hospitalized as well, but there are lots of other complications about sickle cell disease because the blood touches everything in our body, and because sickle cell disease does affect our red blood cells, it too can affect any organ in our body. So the complications I worry about the most, especially in my young patients are splenic sequestration, so the spleen getting big and angry and causing complications as a result of that.
Stroke, absolutely. So our patients with sickle cell disease are at higher risk for stroke and need to be monitored for stroke, but then also thinking of complications, as I mentioned retinopathy, so complications in the eye, but also in the kidneys, the lungs and the heart as well.
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