Improving Lung Health of Patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD): Alabama Perspective

Overview:

This is a live webinar on April 13, 2022 from 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm CT 

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is the most common life-shortening autosomal recessive disorder that predominantly affects African Americans.  Alabama has one of the highest rates of SCD according to the CDC. Acute Chest Syndrome (ACS) is the most common cause of death in children with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and accounts for 25% of the mortality in SCD. ACS requires admission to the hospital with an average stay of 10 days in children and 13 days in adults. It peaks in childhood, affecting 25.3% of children with a death rate of 1.1% per episode.

In adults, the mortality rate of ACS is even higher at 4.3% per episode. Recurrent ACS leads to pulmonary fibrosis and restrictive lung disease which adds to the morbidity related to SCD and increases the odds of recurrence due to worsened oxygenation. Most of the morbidity and mortality burden of SCD occurs from ACS and other pulmonary complications of SCD such as asthma, pulmonary hypertension, and sleep disordered breathing. There are
promising curative therapies of SCD which should enhance
efforts to maintain lung health in this population.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this training, participants should be able to:
1. List pulmonary complications of sickle cell disease (SCD).
2. Discuss the impact of pulmonary complications on patients with SCD, including patient’s perspectives.
3. Describe efforts to improve the lung health of children with SCD in Alabama using Children’s of Alabama and the University of
Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) as examples.