Toward a Stroke-Free Childhood in Sickle Cell Disease

AHA Stroke: September 5, 2013

Stroke in childhood is not common outside of congenital heart disease and a few other conditions including sickle cell disease (SCD). The background rates reported have been between 2.3 and 2.7 per 100 000 per year.^1–3 Adults, on the contrary, have a background rate of ≈800 per 100 000.⁴ There are some special conditions that increase the risk including congenital heart disease, trauma, infections (basilar meningitis), cancer, and SCD.⁵

Stroke rates in SCD were estimated to be high at 500 to 1000 per 100 000.⁶ The Baltimore Washington Cooperative Young Stroke Study reported data from 1988 to 1991 at rate of 285 per 100 000 children for SCD.⁷ For children with SCD, this is a long way for a stroke-free childhood. Read more