Omega-3 fatty acids in sickle cell anemia.

摘要

A study done a decade ago found that treatment of sickle cell anemia with co-3 fatty acids reduced the frequency of pain episodes from 7.8 to 3.8 per year (P < .01).However, only 10 patients completed that study, and the finding received scant attention. A more recent study of 140 Sudanese patients (including children and adults with ages ranging from 2 to 24 years) found that co-3 fatty acids reduced the frequency of pain episodes from a median of 4.6 to 2.7 per year (P < .01) and of pain requiring hospitalization from a median of 1 to 0 per year (P < .0001). They also reduced the frequency of severe anemia from 16.4% to 3.2% per year (P < .05) and of transfusion from 16.4% to 4.5% per year (P < .03).2 The theoretical ability of co-3 fatty acids to ameliorate aspects of the pathophysiology of sickle cell anemia—the coagulopathy,1 the increased red blood cell adhesiveness,2'3 the inflammation,4 and the NO insufficiency5—adds credence to the empiric observations.