Renal dysfunction in patients with sickle cell disease

Purpose: to estimate the frequency of renal abnormalities in patients with sickle cell disease and to assess the role of blood transfusion and treatment with hydroxyurea in sickle cell nephropathy prevention. Patients and methods: It’s a descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted hematology laboratory at Ibn Rochd University Hospital of Casablanca. The study was conducted during a period of one year (1 January to 31 December 2008). We included in this study patients with sickle cell disease all ages and gender confused. All patients underwent renal laboratory tests. Results: During the study period, 30 patients were collected. The average age of patients was 26 years. Eighteen patients (60%) had homozygous sickle cell disease SS and 12 had a heterozygous form (8 patients with SA (27%), 2 patients SC and 2 patients S . Abnormal renal laboratory tests were found in 14 patients (46,7%). Of the 14 patients with renal impairment, 7 have received blood transfusions (OR = 0.23 IC95% [0.03 to 1.50]). Eight of our patients were on hydroxyurea, 2 had abnormal renal function. (OR= 1 IC95% [0.10 to 8.90])Conclusion: Sickle cell disease is associated with significant abnormalities of renal function. These abnormalities are more frequent in the SS genotype. We have not been able to prove the beneficial effect of the use of hydroxyurea or blood transfusion in the prevention of renal dysfunctions, perhaps due to the relatively small number of patients included in this study