Dyspnea with hemoglobin SC disease

Linda S. Bang, MD, Robert D. Black, MD, Shelley A. Hall, MD, and William C. Roberts, MD

From the Department of Internal Medicine (Bang), Divisions of Pulmonary Medicine (Black) and Cardiology (Hall), and the Department of Pathology and the Baylor Heart and Vascular Center (Roberts), Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.

Corresponding author: Robert D. Black, MD, 3600 Gaston Avenue, Suite 806, Dallas, Texas 75246.

A 41-year-old African American woman with sickle cell disease presented to the Baylor University Medical Center emergency department with dyspnea and dry cough for 3 weeks and back, leg, and chest pain for 2 to 3 days. The hemoglobin SC disease had been first diagnosed during pregnancy. Pleural tuberculosis with a left-sided effusion had been diagnosed 2 years earlier, and she had been treated with 4 antituberculosis medications. She also had had kidney stones and gallstones in the past. Her only operation was a hernia repair in 1998. Medications included rofecoxib, amitriptyline, and a recently completed 10-day course of trimethoprim and sulfamethoxazole for presumed tuberculous pleuritis. She worked for a laboratory, was separated, and had one daughter, who was well. She smoked about 10 cigarettes a day, drank alcohol occasionally, and denied intravenous drug use. (BUMC Proceedings 2002;15:86-90)