Abstract
Each year, at least 280,000 children are born with sickle cell disease (SCD) in resource-limited settings. For cost, logistic and political reasons, the availability of SCD testing is limited in such settings and consequently 50–90 % of affected children die undiagnosed before their fifth birthday. The recent development of a point of care method for the diagnosis of SCD – the Sickle SCAN™ device – could afford such children the prompt access to appropriate services that has transformed the outlook for affected children in resource-rich areas. In research published in BMC Medicine, Kanter and colleagues describe a small but carefully conducted study involving 208 children and adults, in which they found that by using Sickle SCAN™ it was possible to diagnose the common forms of SCD with 99 % sensitivity and 99 % specificity, in under 5 minutes. If repeatable both in newborn babies and under real-life conditions, and if marketed at an affordable price, Sickle SCAN™ could revolutionize the survival prospects for children born with SCD in resource-limited areas.Please see related article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12916-015-0473-6.
Highlights
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a neglected, chronic, multisystem disorder that is of growing importance in the global health context [1, 2]
Poor diagnostic facilities coupled with the low priority afforded to SCD in the health plans of many countries in Williams BMC Medicine (2015) 13:238 sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) mean that the majority of children born with the condition on the continent go undiagnosed and die from preventable complications before their fifth birthday [8]
The Sickle SCANTM test In research published in BMC Medicine, Kanter and colleagues show that a new point of care diagnostic device, called Sickle SCANTM, can be used to accurately diagnose the most common forms of SCD (HbSS and HbSC)
Summary
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a neglected, chronic, multisystem disorder that is of growing importance in the global health context [1, 2]. Background Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a neglected, chronic, multisystem disorder that is of growing importance in the global health context [1, 2]. Since the introduction of newborn screening throughout much of Europe and North America, the majority of children born with SCD in these regions are diagnosed early, placed on life-long care, and can expect to live to middle-age and beyond [7].
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