Hospital Physician January 2007 15 T he acute chest syndrome (ACS) is an acute pulmonary illness that occurs in patients with sickle cell disease. ACS is currently defined as a new infiltrate on chest radiograph in conjunction with 1 other new symptom or sign: chest pain, cough, wheezing, tachypnea, and/or fever (> 38.5°C).1 The term acute chest syndrome was first suggested in 1979 by Charache ...

Sickle cell anaemia (SS) and sickle cell-haemoglobin C disease (SC) patients exhibit severe red blood cell (RBC) rheological alterations involved in the development of several complications. The contribution of oxidative stress in these haemorheological abnormalities is still unknown. We compared RBC reactive oxygen species (ROS) and glutathione (GSH) content, and the haemorheological profile o...

Activated polymorphonuclear neutrophils play an important role in the pathogenesis of vaso-occlusive painful sickle cell crisis. Upon activation, polymorphonuclear neutrophils can form neutrophil extracellular traps. Neutrophil extracellular traps consist of a meshwork of extracellular DNA, nucleosomes, histones and neutrophil proteases. Neutrophil extracellular traps have been demonstrated to ...

the objective of this study was to analyze the association of somatic cell score (scs) with milk, fat and protein yields across parities. records of production traits and somatic cell counts (scc) from first, second and third parity that were collected by the animal breeding center of iran from 1993 to 2010 were used.all animals were grouped into six classes according to scc and production trai...

We conducted a systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of spinal cord stimulation (SCS) in relieving pain and improving functioning for patients with failed back surgery syndrome and complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS). We also reviewed SCS complications. Literature searches yielded 583 articles, of which seven met the inclusion criteria for the review of SCS effectiveness, a...

High fetal hemoglobin (HbF) levels inhibit the polymerization of sickle hemoglobin (HbS) and reduce the complications of sickle cell disease. Pharmacologic agents that can reverse the switch from gamma- to beta-chain synthesis--gama-globin chains characterize HbF, and sickle beta-globin chains are present in HbS--or selectively increase the proportion of adult erythroid precursors that maintain...