Relationship of age, anthropometry and haemoglobin concentration with echocardiographic findings in Nigerian children with sickle cell anaemia

Background: Assessment of the structural and functional effects of sickle cell anaemia (SCA) on the heart can be done using echocardiography.There has been no agreement on which indicator of body size (weight, height, and body surface area (BSA)) or age in children should be used to relate to and correct echocardiographic measurements.Aim: To correlate the echocardiographic findings of children with SCA aged one to fifteen years in steady state with their age, anthropometryand haemoglobin concentration.Methods: A prospective study carried out at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), between May and October 2005. The subjects were 60 paediatric patients attending the LUTH SCA outpatient clinic and 60 age, sex and socioeconomic matched controls. Their height, weight, and echocardiographic parameters were measured and their BSA and haemoglobin level were determined.Results: The direct echocardiographic measurement (AO, LA, LVPW, EDD, ESD, IVS) and LVM each increased progressively with body weight, height, body surface area and age in both subjects and controls (r > 0.3, p < 0.001 in each case). Multivariate analysis showed that height correlated significantly with AO, ESD, EDD and LVPW in the subjects. All the parameters except age were significantly correlated with LVM both in univariate and multivariate analysis.Conclusion: Echocardiographic parameters in SCA patients are significantlycorrelated with anthropometric indices and age. Our data suggest best correlation with height in these subjects.