Sickle Cell Disease: New Opportunities and Challenges in Africa

Table 3

Summary of study outcomes for hydroxyurea use in adults and children.

Outcome	Impact in adults	Impact in adolescents
Clinical outcomes
Pain crises	↓ ↓↓	↓ ↓
Hospitalisations	↓ ↓↓	↓ ↓↓
Blood transfusion therapy	↓ ↓↓	↔ (insufficient data)
Acute chest syndrome	↓ ↓↓	↔ (insufficient data)
Laboratory markers
Foetal haemoglobin	↑↑↑	↑↑↑
Haemoglobin	↑↑↑	↔ (not significantly significant)
Mean corpuscular haemoglobin	↑↑↑	↑↑↑
White blood cell count	↓ ↓↓	↓ ↓↓
Prevention of end organ damage
Brain	↔	↔
Spleen	↔	↔
Kidney	↔	↔
Mortality	↓	↔=

↓ ↓↓: high-grade evidence for decrease; ↓: low-grade evidence for a decrease; ↑↑↑: high-grade evidence for increase; ↑: low-grade evidence for an increase; ↔: not evaluated/not significantly different/insufficient data. Source [152].