OSA Prevalence in Children with Sickle Cell Disease: An Indian Experience

Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is highly prevalent in central India and there is paucity of data regarding OSA in children with Sickle cell syndromes. This study was done to find out proportion of sleep apnea among the SCD pediatric population in central India.

Children (5–18 years) enrolled in the Pediatric Hematology Clinic with a diagnosis of SCD were approached for Polysomnography (PSG) study.

Twenty eight patients (17 males) with SCD underwent Level I PSG. Mean age was 12.21 ± 3.37 years and mean BMI was 14.87 ± 2.56 kg/m². Mean Apnea–hypopnea index (AHI index) was 9.329 ± 5.44.OSA (AHI ≥ 1/h) was seen in all 28 participants. Moderate–severe OSA (AHI ≥ 5) was seen in 20 children (71.4%) with SCD.

OSA is highly prevalent in children with SCD and should be screened in every child with SCD.