Recent clinical data suggest that subjects with sickle cell disease suffer from chronically impaired nitric oxide bioavailability. This has been attributed to increased consumption of nitric oxide by hemoglobin and reactive oxygen species, or decreased production of nitric oxide by endothelial cells; however the roles of nitric oxide bioavailability and endothelial dysfunction during acute pain crisis are controversial and incompletely understood. Although there have been several studies of endothelial function in steady state sickle cell disease, there has been no comprehensive study of endothelial function during pain crisis.