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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