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Sickle cell trait may not increase stroke risk in black adults
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Black adults with sickle cell trait did not have an increased risk for ischemic stroke, according to a meta-analysis published in JAMA Neurology.
Hyacinth I. Hyacinth, MD, PhD, MPH, associate professor in the department of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine, and colleagues analyzed data from 19,464 black adults (mean age, 60 years; 27% men) from four studies: Jackson Heart Study, REGARDS, MESA and Women’s Health Initiative. Of these participants, 1,520 had sickle cell trait and 620 had incident ischemic stroke.
Baseline information was collected by self-report and in-person examination, and patients were followed up annually or semiannually for the occurrence of CV events, including stroke. Exclusion criteria for this meta-analysis included those with a history of stroke at baseline and incident hemorrhagic stroke.
Risk factors, age at ischemic stroke event and the number of strokes did not differ in patients with and without sickle cell trait.
The crude incidence of ischemic stroke was similar in people with sickle cell trait (2.9 per 1,000 person-years; 95% CI, 2.2-4) and without it (3.2 per 1,000 person-years; 95% CI, 2.7-3.8). After adjusting for stroke risk factors, HRs did not significantly differ between both groups (HR = 0.8; 95% CI, 0.47-1.35).
Results were similar in both the individual cohorts and the meta-analysis.
“Future studies with large numbers of African-Americans, longer follow-up and carefully subtyped ischemic stroke events are needed to further elucidate the possible association of [sickle cell trait] with incident ischemic stroke overall and by specific ischemic stroke subtypes,” Hyacinth and colleagues wrote. – by Darlene Dobkowski
Disclosure s : The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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