Table 5. Mean (± SEM) Age and Clinical Status of Children with Sickle Cell Disease as a Function of Inflammation

Variable	Without Inflammation (n = 40)	With Inflammation^{^a} (n = 19)
Age, years	8.354 ± 0.753	6.09 ± 0.811^{^b}
Plasma retinol, μg/dL	60.9 ± 7.0	50.90 ± 4.3^{^c}
Weight, kg	28.39 ± 2.58	18.864 ± 2.21
Weight percentile	38.08 ± 5.16	32.393 ± 7.63
Height, cm	125.64 ± 4.60	107.23 ± 7.14
Height percentile	39.54 ± 5.24	34.64 ± 8.42
Pain crises	0.892 ± 0.31	0.688 ± 0.24
Units of blood	1.333 ± 0.398	0.563 ± 0.33
Infections	0.526 ± 0.15	0.688 ± 0.18
Hospitalizations	1.60 ± 0.35	1.25 ± 0.43
Hematocrit, %	27.45 ± 0.81	28.00 ± 1.08
Hemoglobin, g/dL	8.81 ± 0.31	8.673 ± 0.39
White blood cells × 10⁶/mL	12.364 ± 0.79	13.15 ± 1.23
Health score^{^d}	4.154 ± 0.77	3.78 ± 0.72

↵^a Inflammation is defined as C-reactive protein >10 mg/L and/or α1-acid glycoprotein >1.0 g/L.
↵^b P < 0.05.
↵^c P = 0.1.
↵^d Health score is the sum of the number of episodes of pain crisis, infection, hospital admission, and/or blood units received.