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The specific gravity of urine from patients with sickle cell disease is fixed at 1.010, and postmortem injection studies have shown that the intrarenal blood vessels are severely attenuated. The progressive nature of sickle cell–associated kidney disease is indicated by the fact that renal failure commonly occurs among sickle cell patients older than 40. Now, researchers report the results of a study on renal function among 65 young, ostensibly healthy, sickle cell patients (age range, 18–23).
In the Jamaican Cohort Study, investigators began screening newborns for homozygous sickle cell (SS) disease more than 20 years ago and have recently performed follow-up studies on these patients, as well as on a control cohort with normal hemoglobin (…