Physical activity in patients with sickle cell disease: Effect on the vascular function, frequency of painful episodes and clinical course of the disease

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To date, clinical complications associated with sickle cell diseases (SCD) have never been studied relatively to the level of objectively measured physical activity (PA). By March 31, 2022, 85 subjects (65 patients and 20 healthy subjects) have been included in the study protocol. All subjects underwent a 5-week assessment of PA. The SCD patients have been submitted to a panel of tests aiming at assessing their clinical status and vascular health. They also completed a diary to record pain, potential vaso-occlusive painful events and related medications. Eighty-two subjects have completed the baseline assessment. Thirty patients have been included in a 3-month longitudinal protocol that includes a PA intervention and follow-up visits. Twenty-two of them have completed the whole longitudinal protocol. At baseline, the median daily step-count of patients are distributed from 3341 to 29643 steps. Some patients regularly performed more than 300 min per day of moderate-to-vigorous PA. Subjects with normal hemoglobin showed a similar range for step-count indicating that SCD patients can perform as much PA as their control counterpart. No relationship has been found between severe clinical events and the volume or intensity of PA. However, a significant negative correlation was found between daily step-count and pain occurrence in patients who did not report major clinical complications. In addition, we observed a negative correlation between the volume of PA and blood viscosity, which points to an improved hemorheological profile in the most active patients.