Evaluation of the prevalence and liver function tests in patients with Sickle cell disease and Sickle cell trait in Taif Province, Saudi Arabia
Published Online: Aug 06, 2025
Page range: 177 - 182
Received: Mar 18, 2025
Accepted: May 14, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/rrlm-2025-0019
Keywords
© 2025 Mamdouh Allahyani et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Background
Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common monogenic condition, impacting millions of people. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of SCD and sickle cell trait (SCT) and evaluated the levels of liver function tests in SCD individuals.
Methods
This case-control study was conducted between January and December 2023, and data were collected from Armed Forces Hospitals in Al-Hada in Taif. The study included all patients with SCD and SCT using hemoglobin electrophoresis. Demographics, hemoglobin variants, and liver function tests were evaluated and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to assess significance between groups. The correlation was conducted using Pearson’s correlation coefficient.
Results
The prevalence of SCD was 11.1%, while the prevalence of SCT was 40.9%. The majority of patients were females. The data showed that alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and total proteins were increased in patients with SCD and SCT. The results showed that albumin levels were not significantly different between groups. In addition, the levels of ALT and AST were elevated in both diseases, but a significant difference was observed only in SCD patients. The results also indicated that there was negative correlation between several liver function tests and age in SCD and SCT patients.
Conclusions
The prevalence of SCD and SCT is high in the study population. Discrepancies in standard liver function tests are frequently observed in patients with SCD and SCT and are correlated with age. These observations suggest that the liver tests may be affected in both disorders, therefore further investigation is needed to validate these findings.