Plasma levels of some blood coagulation parameters in Nigerian homozygous sickle cell patients (HbSS) in steady state

The plasma levels of some blood coagulation parameters; prothrombin time, (PT), partial thromboplastin time with kaolin (PTTK), thrombin clotting time, (TCT), fibrinogen and factor X assay were determined in 50 Nigerian homozygous (HbSS) patients and 50 HbAA healthy individuals for the purpose of assessing their baseline values and susceptibility of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) to hyper coagulability. Standard procedures were used for all variables. The mean age of the study participants was 21.7 ± 5.0 years. The mean PT of 13.7 ± 1.4s in HbSS patients was found to be significantly longer than the mean PT value of 12.9 ± 1.0 in HbAA control subjects (p < 0.001). The mean PTTK values of 46.0 ± 9.6s in HbSS patients was also found to be significantly higher than the 41.0 ± 3.7s recorded among the control subjects (p < 0.001). The mean TCT of 6.4 ± 0.8s in HbSS patients was however found to be significantly lower than the mean value of 10.6 ± 0.8s obtained in the control group. Fibrinogen level (4.1 ± 2.1 g/l) in HbSS patients and 2.8 ± 0.9 g/l in HbAA controls was also found to be significantly different (p < 0.001). Factor X level in the sickle cell patients, (64.6 ± 14.9%) was equally found to be significantly lower than that of the apparently healthy HbAA control individuals (95.2 ± 7.2%) (p < 0.001).