Reproductive intentions in mothers of young children with sickle cell disease.

Background: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an autosomal recessive hemoglobinopathy associated with morbidity and mortality. We sought to understand family planning intentions of parents of young children with SCD including the awareness of three reproductive options (adoption, in vitro fertilization with egg/sperm donation [IVFD], in vitro fertilization [IVF] with preimplantation genetic testing [IVF/PGT]) to decrease the risk of having a child with SCD.

Procedure: Qualitative, semistructured, one-on-one interviews with 18 female parents of young children with SCD at an urban, tertiary care pediatric hospital.

Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography and prophylactic transfusion program is effective in preventing overt stroke in children with sickle cell disease.

Objective: To assess the impact of our transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) program on the incidence of first stroke and the rate of transfusion for stroke prevention in children with sickle cell disease.

Study Design: In this single-institution, retrospective study, we compared the incidence of stroke and of transfusion for stroke prevention in 475 patients observed in the 8-year period before instituting TCD screening with the rate in 530 children in the 8-year period after.

Results: The incidence of overt stroke in the pre-TCD period was 0.