BACKGROUND The contribution of hypercoagulability to the pathophysiology of sickle cell disease (SCD) remains poorly defined. We sought to evaluate the association of markers of coagulation and platelet activation with specific clinical complications and laboratory variables in patients with SCD. DESIGN AND METHODS Plasma markers of coagulation activation (D-dimer and TAT), platelet activatio...

This study was a prospective cross-sectional cohort study of 125 patients with sickle cell anemia (SS) between the ages of 16 to 60 years. Enrolled patients were followed-up prospectively for 15 months. Demographic, clinical, hematological and routine biochemical data were obtained on all patients. Six-minute walk test and Doppler Echocardiography were performed on all patients. A tricuspid reg...

background: longer survival after the total repair of the tetralogy of fallot increases the importance of late complications such as right ventricular dysfunction. this is a prospective study of the right ventricular function in totally corrected tetralogy of fallot patients versus healthy children. methods: thirty-two healthy children were prospectively compared with 30 totally corrected tetra...

Background: Treatment of sickle cell anemia is a challenging task and despite the well understood genetic and biochemical pathway of sickle hemoglobin, current therapy continues to be limited to the symptomatic treatment of pain, supplemental oxygen, antibiotics, red blood cell transfusions and hydroxyurea. SANGUINATE is a carbon monoxide releasing molecule and oxygen transfer agent under clini...

OBJECTIVE To determine the value of cross sectional Doppler echocardiography and derived indices of right ventricular pressure and function in the initial diagnosis of pulmonary embolism. BACKGROUND Most deaths from acute pulmonary embolism occur because of a delay in diagnosis. Ventilation-perfusion scans are not sufficiently sensitive, whereas angiography is invasive and associated with com...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is increasingly observed in sickle cell disease (SCD) and beta-thalassemia (beta-thal), but there is no information on its prevalence in patients with HbS/beta-thal. The amino-terminal fragment of B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) is considered as an independent prognostic factor in PH. The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidenc...

BACKGROUND Niacin induces the release of vasodilating prostaglandins, for which receptors are present within the pulmonary arterial circulation. We hypothesized that immediate-release niacin would reduce right ventricular systolic pressure in patients with pulmonary hypertension in a randomized, double-blinded, single-dose provocation study. METHODS We recruited inpatient subjects with a Dopp...

Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is poorly characterized in the critically ill. No prior studies describe the burden of or outcomes associated with PH in a general medical intensive care unit population. We hypothesize that PH is an important comorbidity prevalent in the modern medical intensive care unit. We undertook a preliminary investigation to define the consequences of Doppler-defined PH in t...

Implantation of transvenous devices is a widespread procedure in clinical cardiology. It is well known that the presence of the electrodes in the cardiovascular system can induce fibrosis or fibrous adhesions between them and cause tricuspid regurgitation. Moreover there are suggestions that the placement of the electrode in the tricuspid orifice may also play a role in the development of tricu...

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to evaluate the reliability of mitral regurgitation color M-mode regurgitant flow propagation velocity (RFPV) in grading mitral regurgitation (MR). METHODS We prospectively examined 52 consecutive patients with grades of MR mild in 10 patients, moderate in 19 patients, and severe in 23 patients with quantitative pulse Doppler echocardiography. MR was evaluate...