Cardiovascular diseases account for 40% of all deaths in the West. Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major health problem affecting over 300,000 patients annually in the United States alone. Presence of coronary artery disease (CAD), usually in the setting of diminished left ventricular ejection fraction, is still the single major risk factor for SCD. Additionally, acute myocardial ischemia, stru...

sickle cell disease (SCD), a heritable blood disorder with devastating effects, was recognized as a global health problem by the World Health Organization. Two years later, the 63 rd United Nations Assembly designated June 19 as the " World Sickle Cell Day " , in an attempt to improve public awareness of the disease and to improve the prospects for patients. Now in 2016, do we detect any change...

Polymorphic expression of metabolic enzymes have been identified as one of the key factors responsible for the interindividual/ethnic/racial variability in drug metabolism and effect. In Nigeria, there is a disproportionately high incidence of sickle-cell disease (SCD), a condition characterized by painful crisis frequently triggered by malaria. Proguanil, a substrate of the polymorphic CYP2C19...

BACKGROUND Pulmonary hypertension (PHT) is common in sickle cell disease (SCD). The purpose of this study was to determine whether markers of coagulation activation and inflammation are associated with PHT in SCD. DESIGN AND METHODS This cross-sectional study was performed using a cohort of patients followed at an adult Sickle Cell Clinic. Pulmonary artery systolic pressure was determined by ...

The right-shifted oxyhemoglobin dissociation curve of sickle cell disease (SCD) has been thought to result in abnormally low arterial oxygen saturation (S(o)(2)), even when oxygen partial pressure (P(o)(2)) is normal. However, without polymer formation (minimal under normoxic conditions), HbS oxygen affinity is normal. We hypothesized that in SCD, in vivo S(o)(2) is normal when P(o)(2) is norma...

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is associated with an increased risk of medical complications during pregnancy. In sub-Saharan Africa, fetal and maternal mortality rates are particularly high. This study evaluated the effect of an active prenatal management program on pregnancy outcome in patients with SCD in an African setting. Pregnant women with SCD attending the National Teaching Hospital in Coto...

INTRODUCTION Increased life expectancy due to recent medical advances has increased the need to understand more fully the quality of life (QoL) in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) and factors predicting disease adaptation .The objectives of this study were to assess the impairment of health related quality of life (HRQoL) domains in a sample of Saudi Arabian adolescents with SCD. METHO...

Our present ability to identify individuals who are at risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD) in the general population is poor. Although SCD risk has a heritable component, our understanding of the genetic basis of SCD is most advanced in rare arrhythmic disorders such as the long-QT and Brugada syndromes, in which mutations in genes encoding cardiac ion channels result in increased susceptibilit...

BACKGROUND Oxidative stress constitutes one of the significant cause of vaso-occlusive clinical episodes in sickle cell disease (SCD) patients. It brings about the generation of reactive oxygen species and consequent damage to DNA. DNA damage repair genes such as hOGG1, XRCC1 and p53 play an important role in the repair of DNA damage during oxidative stress. However, it is not known as to the r...

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is the most devastating manifestation of ventricular arrhythmias (VAs), and is the leading cause of mortality among atrial fibrillation (AF) patients. The goal of the present study was to investigate the incidence of SCD/VAs amongst patients with and without AF. We also aimed to identify important risk factors of SCD/VAs among AF patients. Using the "National Health I...