Thorax: Lung Complications in Pregnant Women with Sickle Cell Disease

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a multi-system disease characterized by the risk of vascular aphation, chronic anemia and short life spanMore and more SCD patients can live to the age of childbirth and plan to become pregnantLung complications during pregnancy are an important cause of maternal morbidity and mortality, but have not been systematically quantifiedIn a recent study published in Thorax, an authoritative journal for chest disease, researchers conducted a systematic evaluation and meta-analysis to quantify the link between SCD and lung complications during pregnancyresearchers searched the MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane and maternity and infant health databases from January 1998 to April 2019, including observational studies of at least 30 participantsThe random effect model is used for statistical meta-analysisthe system's evaluation included 22 studies, and quantitative analysis included 18 studiesThe meta-analysis analyzed 3,964 pregnant women with SCD and 336,559 patientsCompared to women without SCD, the risk of pulmonary thromboembolism in pregnancy combined with SCD increased (relative risk (RR) was 7.74; 95% CI was 4.65 to 12.89)The estimated prevalence of acute thoracic syndrome and pneumonia is 6.46 per cent (95 per cent CI is 4.66 to 8.25 per cent), with no significant difference between HbSS and HbSC genotypes (RR 1.42; 95% CI is 0.90 to 2.23), the meta-analysis highlights the close link between SCD and lung complications in pregnant womenUnderstanding the risks of lung complications and related factors will contribute to pre-pregnancy counselling and optimal management of pregnancy conditions, thereby reducing the associated morbidity and mortality of pregnant women