BACKGROUND One of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in children with sickle cell disease (SCD) is infection with the pneumococcal bacterium (Streptococcus pneumoniae). Unfortunately, the polysaccharide-conjugate vaccine appears to be less effective in individuals with SCD when compared to the general population. We sought to better understand the relative efficacy of pneumococca...

Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) often require transfusions to treat and prevent worsening anemia and other SCD complications. However, transfusions can trigger alloimmunization against transfused RBCs with serious clinical sequelae. Risk factors for alloimmunization in SCD remain poorly understood. We recently reported altered regulatory T cell (Treg) and Th responses with higher circul...

AIM To investigate the specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) as nutritional therapy for maintenance of remission in pediatric Crohn's disease (CD). METHODS Retrospective chart review was conducted in 11 pediatric patients with CD who initiated the SCD as therapy at time of diagnosis or flare. Two groups defined as SCD simple (diet alone, antibiotics or 5-ASA) or SCD with immunomodulators (corticos...

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is the leading cause of death in firefighters. Although on-duty SCD usually occurs in older victims almost exclusively because of coronary heart disease, no studies have examined causation across the career span. In the present retrospective case-control study, cases of SCD in young (aged ≤45 years) firefighters from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and ...

BACKGROUND Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an autosomal recessive genetic disorder, with persons heterozygous for the mutation said to have the sickle cell trait (SCT). Serious adverse effects are mainly limited to those with SCD, but the distinction between disease and trait is not always clear to the general population. We sought to determine the accuracy of self-reported SCD when compared to ge...

BACKGROUND Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is often the first manifestation of coronary heart disease (CHD) among women. Data regarding BMI and risk of SCD are limited and conflicting. OBJECTIVES We examined the association of BMI repeatedly measured over 32 years and BMI during early and mid-adulthood with risk of SCD in the Nurses' Health Study. METHODS We prospectively followed 72,484 women f...

Ulla A. Hvidtfeldt, MSc; Janne S. Tolstrup, MSc, PhD; Marianne U. Jakobsen, MSc, PhD; Berit L. Heitmann, PhD; Morten Grønbæk, MD, PhD; Eilis O’Reilly, ScD; Katarina Bälter, PhD; Uri Goldbourt, PhD; Göran Hallmans, MD, PhD; Paul Knekt, PhD; Simin Liu, MD, ScD; Mark Pereira, PhD; Pirjo Pietinen, ScD; Donna Spiegelman, ScD; June Stevens, MSc, PhD; Jarmo Virtamo, MD; Walter C. Willett, MD, DrPH; Er...

Spleen damage is a common and crucial characteristic of SCD. A damaged spleen cannot effectively clear bacteria from the blood, leaving SCD patients, particularly young children, highly susceptible to infection. Children with SCD have rates of infection caused by bacterial pneumonia 30-100 times that of children without SCD, and pneumonia vaccines are of limited effectiveness in this age group ...

AIMS Mental depression is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality, but the reasons for this association are not well known. We tested the hypothesis that depressive symptoms (DS) may specifically increase the risk of sudden cardiac death (SCD) among the elderly subjects. METHODS All persons aged 70 years or over of a defined area in Northern Finland (n=1113) were the tar...