Blood Test Predicts Sickle Cell Disease Complication, Identifies Patients At High Risk Of Death

The hormone, call brainpower natriuretic peptide or BNP, be released next to the heart ventricles and sustain prognosticate emancipation in heart breakdown patients. The unmarked workroom be published in the July 19 feature of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"This is an impressive leap deflect in research against sickle cell weakness," said NHLBI Director Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D. "Having a float in the blood that will not merely help identify sickle cell patients enclosed friendly complication but also predict those at the topmost speculate and will aid in the vigilance and nurture of these patients." Sickle cell anemia is one of the fastest undisputed genetic blood untidy in the United States. About 30 percent of sickle cell patients particular pulmonary hypertension. In this position, within is dyed-in-the-wool high-ranking blood anxiety in the pulmonary artery that equip the lungs. This pressure organize to narrowed arteries, cause the heart to employment harder to pump blood. Pulmonary hypertension recurrently leads to heart failure and it is a through risk factor in support of death in adults with sickle cell disease. Currently, echocardiograms and other heart test be nearly new to diagnose pulmonary hypertension, but there have not be a blood exam to help detect the condition.

Previous research has found that in patients with pulmonary hypertension, importantly developed level of BNP are associated with greater pressure in the pulmonary arteries. NHLBI researchers theorize that BNP levels may well also correlate with the steadfastness of pulmonary hypertension and risk of death in sickle cell patients.

Lead scientist Roberto Machado, M.D., an investigator with NHLBI's Vascular Medicine Branch, and colleagues, as well as scientists in the NIH Clinical Center, measured BNP levels in 230 patients with sickle cell disease enrol in the NIH Pulmonary Hypertension Screening Study involving 2001 and 2005. In aim to authenticate a diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension, the patients be given echocardiograms and other measurements of heart drive. BNP levels were also measured in 45 good African-American controls, since the disease is more prevalent in African-Americans.

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