April
2021
- Volume 15, Issue 2
Atherosclerotic
background of cirrhosis in sickle cell patients
Mehmet Rami Helvaci (1)
Alper Sevinc (1)
Celaletdin Camci (1)
Ali Keskin (1)
Abdulrazak Abyad (2)
Lesley Pocock (3)
(1) Specialist of Internal Medicine,
MD
(2) Middle-East Academy for Medicine of Aging, MD
(3) Medi-WORLD International
Corresponding author:
Prof Dr Mehmet Rami Helvaci,
07400, ALANYA, TurkeyPhone: 00-90-506-4708759
Email: mramihelvaci@hotmail.com
Received: February 2021; Accepted:
March 2021; Published: April, 2021
Citation: Helvaci MR et al. Atherosclerotic background of
cirrhosis in sickle cell patients. Middle East Journal of
Nursing 2021; 15(2): 21-25.DOI: 10.5742/MEJN.2021.937807
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ABSTRACT
Background:
We tried to understand the presence of any atherosclerotic
background of cirrhosis in patients with sickle cell diseases
(SCDs).
Methods: The study was performed
in the Hematology Service of the Mustafa Kemal University
on SCDs patients between March 2007 and June 2012.
Results: The study included 256 patients
with SCDs (127 females). Their mean age was 29.3 years. Cirrhosis
was detected in 5.8% (15) of the SCDs patients without any
gender difference (6.2% of females versus 5.4% of males, p>0.05).
There were 15 (5.8%) patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease with a highly significant male predominance (3.1%
versus 8.5%, p<0.001). Digital clubbing and pulmonary hypertension
were also higher in males, but the differences were nonsignificant
in between (4.7% versus 6.2% and 11.0% versus 12.4%, respectively).
Similarly, the leg ulcers were significantly higher in males,
too (5.5% versus 16.2%, p<0.001). The significant male
predominance was also observed in stroke and smoking (3.1%
versus 6.2%, p<0.05 and 3.9% versus 11.6%, p<0.001,
respectively). There were 14 (5.4%) mortal patients during
the five-year follow-up period (6.2% of females and 4.6% of
males, p>0.05), and the mean ages were 31.0 and 26.8 years,
respectively (p>0.05).
Conclusion: Probably cirrhosis
is a systemic inflammatory process prominently affecting the
hepatic vasculature, and an eventual accelerated atheroscerotic
process is the main underlying cause of characteristics of
the disease. SCDs are accelerated systemic atherosclerotic
processes, too, and the higher prevalence of cirrhosis in
SCDs patients may indicate the underlying atherosclerotic
background of cirrhosis.
Key words: Atherosclerosis,
metabolic syndrome, cirrhosis, sickle cell diseases
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