Evaluation of cardiac fibrosis and subclinical cardiac changes in children with sickle cell disease using magnetic resonance imaging, echocardiography, and serum galectin-3.

Background: Myocardial fibrosis has recently been proposed as one of the contributing factors to the diverse pathogenicity of cardiomyopathy in sickle cell disease.

Objective: In this study, cardiac fibrosis and subclinical cardiac changes in children with sickle cell disease were evaluated using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), tissue Doppler echocardiography and serum galectin-3.

Materials And Methods: The study included 34 children with sickle cell disease who were compared with a similar number of healthy controls.