Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a genetic disease that afflicts over eighty thousand Americans, 4 to 5,000 newborns per year in the US, and 100s of thousands of children and adults world-wide. This disease arises from a single amino acid mutation of the beta globin chain of hemoglobin, which results in abnormal polymerization of deoxygenated hemoglobin. The deceptively simple biologic origin for SCD belies the debilitating chronic multi-faceted clinical syndrome with which it is associated; SCD is characterized by lifelong hemolysis, chronic anemia, recurrent painful vaso-occlusive crises (VOC), hepatic, renal, musculo-skeletal, and central nervous system complications, and a shortened life-expectancy. Our group has found an up to 33% incidence of pulmonary hypertension in adult patients with SCD who were screened and followed prospectively; with two-year follow-up, this pulmonary hypertension is associated with a 10-fold increased mortality rate.