An Educational Study Promoting the Delivery of Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound Screening in Paediatric Sickle Cell Disease: A European Multi-Centre Perspective.

Background: Effective stroke prevention in sickle cell disease (SCD) is recommended for children with sickle cell anaemia. Effective implementation relies on the correct stratification of stroke risk using Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound (TCD), prior to committing children to long-term treatment with transfusion. Nevertheless, less than 50% of children with SCD in Europe receive annual TCD-one of the reasons being a lack of trained personnel.

Transcranial Doppler screening for stroke risk in children with sickle cell disease: a systematic review.

Background Sickle cell disease (SCD) is one of the most common causes of stroke in children worldwide. Based on the results of the Stroke Prevention Trial in Sickle Cell Anemia (STOP), annual transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) screening for affected children is standard practice. However, the need for TCD surveillance programs could override the accuracy of the screening, affecting the correct stratification of stroke risk and subsequent clinical management of the target population.

Effectiveness of alternative strategies to define index case phenotypes to aid genetic diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolaemia.

Objective: To determine the utility of secondary stratification measures to improve the ascertainment of index cases of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH).

Design: A retrospective study of genotyped index patients with Simon Broome (SB) FH.

Setting: University teaching hospital.

Problems with implementing a standardised transcranial Doppler screening programme: impact of instrumentation variation on STOP classification.

Background: The Stroke Prevention Trial in Sickle Cell Anaemia (STOP) demonstrated the value of selective transfusion based on transcranial Doppler (TCD) US screening. This facilitated widespread surveillance, but due to reported differences with non-imaging TCD, imaging velocity thresholds have been reduced in some centres.

Objective: (1) Retrospectively review velocity measurements obtained by non-imaging and imaging TCD, using a standardised protocol.