Overt and incomplete (silent) cerebral infarction in sickle cell anemia: diagnosis and management

Wing-Yen Wong1, Darleen R Powars

  • 1Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.

Cerebral vasculopathy in sickle cell anemia (HbSS) is manifest clinically as cerebral infarction and intracranial hemorrhage. The type of stroke, ischemic or hemorrhagic, is age specific with distinct differences in outcomes. Cerebral infarction with or without clinical stroke begins during early childhood and rarely causes death immediately.