5 years ago

How I manage sickle cell patients with high transcranial doppler results

Banu Kaya, John Brewin, Subarna Chakravorty
Stroke is one of the most severe complications to affect children with sickle cell anaemia (SCA). Transcranial doppler (TCD) is an accurate and non-invasive method to determine stroke risk. Randomised controlled trials have demonstrated the efficacy of chronic transfusion therapy in stroke prevention based on risk stratification determined by TCD velocities. This has led to the regular use of TCD monitoring for children with SCA in order to determine stroke risk. Significant resource allocation is necessary to facilitate training, quality assurance and failsafe arrangements for non-attenders. In a subgroup of patients, chronic transfusions for primary stroke prevention can be replaced by hydroxycarbamide therapy, provided careful monitoring is undertaken; including repeat TCD studies at frequent intervals. The authors propose an evidence-based algorithm for the management of abnormal TCD velocities and discuss the role of this test in other clinical contexts, such as in Haemoglobin SC disease.

Publisher URL: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/doi

DOI: 10.1111/bjh.14850

You might also like
Discover & Discuss Important Research

Keeping up-to-date with research can feel impossible, with papers being published faster than you'll ever be able to read them. That's where Researcher comes in: we're simplifying discovery and making important discussions happen. With over 19,000 sources, including peer-reviewed journals, preprints, blogs, universities, podcasts and Live events across 10 research areas, you'll never miss what's important to you. It's like social media, but better. Oh, and we should mention - it's free.

  • Download from Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download from AppInChina

Researcher displays publicly available abstracts and doesn’t host any full article content. If the content is open access, we will direct clicks from the abstracts to the publisher website and display the PDF copy on our platform. Clicks to view the full text will be directed to the publisher website, where only users with subscriptions or access through their institution are able to view the full article.