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. 2022 Aug 17;146(2):95–105. doi: 10.1159/000526322

Table 1.

Baseline characteristics of children with SCA enrolled in SPHERE

All participants1 Normal TCD Elevated TCD p value
N 196 149 47
Demographics
 Age at enrollment, mean±SD, years 6.8±3.5 6.9±3.6 6.3±3.2 0.288
 Male, N (%) 93 (47) 71 (48) 22 (47)
 Female, N (%) 103 (53) 78 (52) 25 (53) 1.000
Intake physical examination
 Height, cm 111.5±18.5 112.0±19.3 110.1±15.8 0.553
 Weight, kg 18.6±6.6 19.0±6.7 17.6±6.2 0.213
 Splenectomy, N (%) 1 (1) 1 (1) 0 (0) 1.000
 Spleen palpable, N (%) 49 (25) 36 (24) 13 (28) 0.772
 Spleen palpable ≥5 cm, N (%) 32 (16) 23 (15) 9 (19) 0.146
 Oxygen saturation (%), mean±SD 93.0±4.3 94.0±3.9 91.7±5.0 0.001
 Enlarged tonsillar tissue, N (%) 149 (74) 108 (73) 41 (87) 0.130
Growth parameters, Z-score
 Weight-for-height –1.08±1.36 –1.01±1.46 –1.31±0.94 0.066
 Height-for-age –1.35±1.10 –1.43±1.10 –1.11±1.09 0.082
Past medical history, N (%)
 Vaso-occlusive painful event 182 (93) 137 (92) 45 (96) 0.465
 Dactylitis 150 (77) 118 (79) 32 (68) 0.108
 Malaria 173 (88) 132 (89) 41 (87) 0.415
 Acute chest syndrome/pneumonia 70 (36) 53 (36) 17 (36) 1.000
 Splenic sequestration 68 (35) 54 (36) 14 (30) 0.708
 Previous stroke 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0)
 Bacteremia/sepsis 73 (37) 60 (40) 13 (28) 0.262
 Transfusion 135 (69) 100 (67) 35 (74) 0.372
 Past hydroxyurea use 7 (4) 6 (4) 1 (2) 1.000
Lifetime hospitalizations, N (%)
 ≤5 hospitalizations 135 (69) 105 (70) 30 (64) 0.602
 6–10 hospitalizations 30 (15) 21 (14) 9 (19)
 >10 hospitalizations 31 (16) 23 (15) 8 (17)
Baseline parameters, mean±SD
 Hemoglobin, g/dL 7.7±1.1 7.9±1.1 7.1±1.0 <0.001
 MCV, fL 78±10 79±10 82±9 0.037
 Fetal hemoglobin, % 9.3±5.4 9.6±5.7 8.5±4.0 0.251
 ARC, ×103/L 566±243 558±241 594±249 0.364
 WBC count, ×109/L 14.5±5.4 14.2±5.8 15.3±3.7 0.251
 ANC, ×109/L 5.5±2.3 5.4±2.3 5.9±2.3 0.172
 Platelets, ×109/L 379±164 378±162 382±173 0.899
 ALT, U/L 21±16 20±15 23±18 0.355
 Creatinine, mg/dL 0.22±0.12 0.23±0.11 0.19±0.12 0.013
TCD velocities, mean±SD
 TAMV, cm/s 149±25 138±18 182±12 <0.001
1

A total of 202 children were enrolled, but 6 were withdrawn following confirmatory diagnostic testing. MCV, mean corpuscular volume; WBC, white blood cell; ANC, absolute neutrophil count; ALT, alanine transferase.