title: Electrocardiographic Study in Adult Homozygous Sickle Cell Disease Patients in Lagos, Nigeria.
abstract: Background. This study sought to identify the pattern of electrocardiographic changes in steady state adult sickle cell anaemia.Methods.A case-control, cross-sectional study was conducted amongst sickle cell patients attending the sickle cell clinic of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, and HbAA controls. All consenting participants had haemoglobin electrophoresis done and were subjected to electrocardiography (ECG). The descriptive data were given as means ± standard deviation (SD). The differences were considered to be statistically significant when thepvalue obtained was <0.05.Results.A total of ninety-three sickle cell anaemia (SCA) patients and ninety haemoglobin AA (controls) were enrolled. There was no significant difference in the age of the participants with SCA and that of the controls but the body mass index was significantly higher in controls (p= 0.0001). Overall, 73.1% (68 of 93) had abnormal ECG while only 2 of 90 (2.2%) of controls had abnormal ECG. The common abnormalities observed were left ventricular hypertrophy, biventricular hypertrophy, and right ventricular hypertrophy.Conclusion.Patients with SCA in steady state tend to have normal heart rate but about 50% of them would have had ECG changes before the age of 20 years. ECG being a noninvasive test may be used to identify patients at risk for early intervention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Adedoyin
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dosunmu
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Akinsegun
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3244-0823
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Akinbami
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Ebele
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1081-8888
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Uche
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Adewumi
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5860-3897
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Adediran
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology and Blood Transfusion, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7130-9812
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: John-Olabode