Helvaci, Mehmet RamiAtci, NesrinAyyildiz, OrhanMuftuoglu, Orhan EkremPocock, Lesley2024-09-182024-09-1820161839-01881839-0196https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12483/12248Background: Sickle cell diseases (SCDs) are accelerated atherosclerotic processes. We tried to understand whether or not there is a prolonged survival with the increased number of red blood cells (RBC) transfusion in the SCDs. Methods: As one of the significant endpoints of the SCDs, cases with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and without, were collected into the two groups. Results: The study included 428 patients (221 males). There were 71 patients (16.5%) with COPD. Mean age was significantly higher in the COPD group (32.8 versus 29.8 years, P=0.005). Male ratio was significantly higher in the COPD group, too (78.8% versus 46.2%, P<0.001). Smoking (35.2% versus 11.4%, P<0.001) and alcohol (7.0% versus 1.9%, P<0.01) were also higher among the COPD cases. Beside these, priapism (14.0% versus 3.0%, P<0.001), HCV RNA positivity (2.7% versus 0.5%, P<0.05), cirrhosis (8.4% versus 3.3%, P<0.05), leg ulcers (23.9% versus 12.0%, P<0.01), digital clubbing (25.3% versus 6.7%, P<0.001), coronary heart disease (23.9% versus 13.7%, P<0.05), chronic renal disease (15.4% versus 7.0%, P<0.01), stroke (16.9% versus 8.1%, P<0.01), and mean transfused RBC units in their lives (63.8 versus 33.0, P=0.003) were all higher among the COPD cases. This was probably due to the higher number of transfused RBC units; the mean age of mortality was also higher in the COPD group, significantly (38.3 versus 30.4 years, P=0.04). Conclusion: SCDs are chronic catastrophic processes on vascular endothelium terminating with accelerated atherosclerosis induced endorgan failures in early years of life. RBC supports in severe clinical conditions probably prolong survival of the patients.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessSickle cell diseaseschronic endothelial damagered blood cell supportArticle1451118WOS:000389890700004N/A