Cardiovascular Risk Higher for Individuals with Sickle Cell Trait, Study Led by UT Health Science Center Physician Concludes
Written by Peggy Reisser, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center
African Americans with sickle cell trait (SCT) have 39% higher odds of acute heart failure compared to non-African Americans with SCT, according to a study led by Ugochi Ogu, MD, associate professor in the Division of Hematology and Oncology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and the medical director of the Diggs-Kraus Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at Regional One Health. The study, the first looking at racial disparities in cardiovascular risk in people with SCT, was published in the Annals of Hematology.
SCT, the carrier state for sickle cell disease, affects 300 million people globally and 3 million in the United States, including 7% to 9% of the African Americans in the U.S. and 0.2% of the Caucasian population.
Using the National Inpatient Sample database from 2016 to 2020, a team of researchers from nine institutions looked at cardiovascular outcomes for African American individuals with SCT compared to other racial groups.
While individuals with sickle cell disease often experience severe health complications, SCT is generally considered benign. However, the study reported statistically significant higher odds of acute heart failure in African American individuals with SCT than others with the trait.
Further research into the causes of the racial disparity in cardiovascular risk for those with SCT is needed, according to the study. The researchers recommend health care providers be aware of the risk and treat cardiovascular and related conditions aggressively in African Americans with SCT.
“This really tells us that providers who care for these patients should be more cautious, be more proactive, since we now know that they have a higher risk of acute heart failure compared to the non-African American counterparts,” Dr. Ogu said.
Dr. Ogu is originally from Nigeria, which has the highest burden of sickle cell disease in the world. Her experiences there sparked her passion for sickle cell diagnosis and treatment.
“I witnessed firsthand people who had kids with sickle cell, and a majority of those kids at that time were dying at a very young age,” she said. “That piqued my curiosity, and then when I came to the U.S., seeing that people could live longer, even though there was lots more to be done to improve the care, but seeing the possibility of people not just dying in childhood but getting into adulthood, that solidified my decision to go into the field. And historically, the sickle cell population has been a very neglected population.”
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