Sonographic determination of liver and spleen sizes in patients with sickle cell disease at Gombe, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Ultrasonography is a safe, reproducible, and accurate diagnostic imaging modality in the evaluation of the effects of sickle cell anemia (SCA) on the sizes of liver and spleen. The study is aimed at determining the size of liver and spleen in SCA patients compared with that of healthy age-matched known normal hemoglobin genotype (HbAA) volunteers and also to correlate with some hematological parameters. Materials and Method: This is a prospective cross-sectional study conducted over a period of 1 year. A total number of 237 SCA patients attending the outpatient sickle cell clinic of Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe and an equal number of apparently healthy known age-matched HbAA from the general public were recruited by a convenient sampling technique. Results: The mean size of liver span and spleen length in SCA patients was 13.12 ± 2.05 cm and 6.50 ± 1.75 cm, respectively, while that of the controls was 11.77 ± 1.491 cm and 7.62 ± 1.827 cm, respectively (P = 0.00 for both liver and spleen). The liver span in SCA patients was higher among all the ages, while the spleen length reduces after the first 10 years of age. There was a strong positive correlation between liver span and the age, weight, and height (r = 0.767, 0.830, and 0.826, respectively) in SCA patients. The liver span showed a significant relationship with packed cell volume, red blood cell, white blood cells, mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), MCH concentration, and mean corpuscular volume (r = −0.181, −0.266,−0.299, 0.316, 0.206, and 0.309). There was no correlation between spleen size and hematological parameter. Conclusion: Ultrasound is a veritable tool in the estimation of liver and spleen sizes in SCA patients.