ITALIAN JOURNAL OF PEDIATRICS

Full list of author information is available at the end of the articleIntroduction Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is the most common genetic dis-ease worldwide and is recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN) as a global public health problem [1-3]. Despite being a hemoglobinopathy due to a single gene mutation, SCD shows extreme phenotypic variability among individuals and among populations [3,4]. Both environmental (climate, socio-cultural and demographic influences, language) and genetic factors are likely to contribute to most mani-festations of SCD that develops with different patterns in various ethnic groups and individuals [4,5]. Neurological events (stroke, silent infarcts and transient ischemic attacks) are among the most worrisome clinical complica-tions of SCD and are frequently accompanied by cognitiv