Retinopathy in Egyptian patients with sickle cell disease

Abstract

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a disorder that causes red blood cells to become sticky and rigid. Sickle cells can block blood flow in small blood vessels depriving the eye of oxygen and cause damage. This is called sickle retinopathy that can progress to severe proliferative sickle cell retinopathy, bleeding into the eye, detachment of the retina or even loss of vision. To assess ocular manifestations and detect frequency of retinopathy in patients with SCD. Cross-sectional study was conducted on 32 patients with SCD. They were 22 males and 10 females with mean age of 12 years. Routine investigations as well as ophthalmological examination including visual acuity, fluorescein angiography and optical coherence tomography were done. We found that 8 patients (25%) suffered from proliferative retinopathy, 10 patients (31%) showed tortuous retinal veins, while 14 patients (44%) were normal. All patients showed macular thinning on optical coherence tomography examination. We concluded that frequency of retinopathy in patients with SCD is more than expected and it was higher in patients who started transfusion at a later age. More attention should be paid for this problem and close observations and follow up is strongly needed.

Risk factors associated with sickle cell retinopathy: findings from the Cooperative Study of Sickle Cell Disease

“…We are also careful not to draw too strong a conclusion from this finding because our available study data did not provide information concerning the frequency, number, or timing of transfusion events, especially in relation to the timing of the ocular examination. Interestingly, Hasan et al noted that the frequency of retinopathy was higher in patients who started transfusions at an older age [45]. The findings of this research must be viewed in the light of some limitations, including the historic nature of the large CSSCD study.…”

Incidence of eye complications among sickle cell disease patients in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: A cross-sectional study

“…The most prevalent among these is sickle cell retinopathy, wherein sickle vasculopathy affects the retinal vasculature [ 4 ]. It can be either proliferative sickle cell retinopathy (PSR) or non-proliferative sickle cell retinopathy (NPSR) [ 5 ]. The clinical presentation of sickle cell retinopathy is usually asymptomatic until complications, such as retinal detachment or vitreous hemorrhage, emerge [ 6 ].…”