Clinical and haematological profile of children with sickle cell anaemia admitted to a rural medical college of Chhattisgarh, India

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common single gene disorder resulting in haemolytic anaemia. Global burden of sickle cell anemia is very high. In 2010 number of new-borns with SCA was 305800 globally and population estimates proposed by Piel et al in their geostatistical model estimated that it will be around 40 lakhs by mid half of 21 century. It is highly prevalent in Africa, Saudi-Arabia and parts of central India. This disease is most commonly seen in tribal population of central India. Sickle cell gene frequency in India varies from 2 to 35%. Prevalence of sickle cell anemia in Chhattisgarh is around 11 percent. It presents as a chronic haemolytic anaemia with intermittent episodes of crises. Vaso-occlusive crises are most common presentation. Other acute presentations are, sequestration crises, haemolytic crises, aplastic crises etc. Due to progressive developments in health care facilities, routine monitoring and availability of adequate and appropriate health care services quality of life of sickle cell patients are improving and patients are also presenting with chronic complications in adolescence and adulthood. The subtype of SCD in central India is more similar to ArabIndian haplotype with high level of HbF and less severe clinical manifestations. There are many researches done ABSTRACT