Haematological And Inflammatory Markers Among Paediatrics With Sickle Cell Anaemia Attending Tertiary Health Institutions in Ekiti State, Nigeria.

Sickle cell anaemia is one of the life threatening health challenges bedevilling many developing countries like Nigeria and the management requires regular monitoring of the patients. The aim of this study was to determine haematological parameters and inflammatory markers among paediatrics with sickle cell anaemia. A total of 90 subjects were recruited for this study comprising of 45 confirmed sickle cell anaemia patients in steady state, 32 males and 13 females and 45 apparently healthy subjects with haemoglobin genotypes AA were used as the controls. Automated blood analyzer was used to analyze haematological parameters, erythrocyte sedimentation rate was estimated by Westergreen method and C-reactive protein was estimated using Enzyme Linked Immuno-Sorbent method. Total white blood cell count, white cell differential count, mean cell volume, mean cell haemoglobin, mean cell haemoglobin concentration, red cell distribution width, platelet count, platelet distribution width, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, C-reactive protein was higher in case compared to control. However, red blood cell count, haemoglobin, haematocrit, plateletcrit and mean platelet volume were lower in the case compared to the control subjects. There is no significant (p>0.05) difference in haematological parameters, erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein among the gender in both the case and the control except plateletcrit in the case and eosinophil and red cell distribution width in the control. There is similarity in haematocrit in both sex among the case. It is our anticipation that these findings will greatly assist physicians in the better management of Sickle cell patients in our locality.