Central nervous system events in children with sickle cell disease presenting acutely with headache.

Objective: To determine the frequency of acute care visits and risk factors for central nervous system (CNS) events in children with homozygous sickle cell disease (SCD-SS) with an acute headache.

Study Design: This is a retrospective cohort study of acute care visits for headache in children with SCD-SS. The prevalence of headache visits, neuroimaging evaluation, and acute CNS events were calculated and clinical and laboratory variables assessed.

Silent infarcts in young children with sickle cell disease.

Silent infarcts have been reported most commonly in school-aged children with homozygous sickle cell disease (SCD-SS) and are associated with neurocognitive deficits. However, the prevalence of silent infarcts in younger children with SCD-SS is not well defined. In this retrospective study, brain magnetic resonance imaging and angiography (MRI/A) studies performed before 6 years of age in a cohort of children with SCD-SS were analysed and the prevalence of abnormalities was calculated.