Active clinical trials for "Thalassemia"

Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that can result in mild to severe anemia. People with thalassemia often experience pain, but the exact sources and prevalence of pain remain unknown. This study will examine the prevalence and severity of pain in people with thalassemia who are treated with regular blood transfusions and people with thalassemia who are not treated with regular blood transfusions.

Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that can result in mild to severe anemia. Regular blood transfusions, which refresh the healthy red blood cell supply, are one treatment for thalassemia. People with thalassemia often experience pain, but the exact source of pain remains unknown. This study will examine how pain varies during the blood transfusion cycle in people with thalassemia who are treated with regular blood transfusions.

The purpose of this pilot study is to determine the effect of various doses of vitamin D supplementation on vitamin D stores and calcium excretion in the urine in subjects with Thalassemia Major (TM). Subjects with TM are routinely placed on vitamin D supplements because they frequently have osteoporosis (a condition in which bone tissue thins and loses density and strength) and low vitamin D stores. The amount of vitamin D supplementation that is required to raise vitamin D stores in optimal levels is not known in TM, and will be determined in this study. Finally, a recent study in TM has linked blood vitamin D levels to urine calcium excretion, which is a risk factor for kidney stones. Therefore, we want to determine changes in calcium excretion with various vitamin D doses and with increasing vitamin D stores. We plan to test 3 doses of vitamin D for 3 months in children and adults with TM. Changes in vitamin D blood levels and urinary calcium will be determined. The results of this pilot study will be used in future studies that will examine the effect of various doses of vitamin D supplementation in the treatment of osteoporosis in TM.

Every year, 100,000 neonates are born with hemoglobinopathies around the world. Thalassemia is the most common heterogeneous disease of the human being . It is a disease of high prevalence in Mediterranean, Indian, North Chinese, and Pacific populations. Recently, the quantity and quality of the life of these patients have been significantly improved by regular transfusion and iron chelating therapy .

The results will allow us to evaluate the role of MP in the thrombo-embolic risk observed in thalassemic patients and to underline a possible difference between TM and TI. The in vitro and in vivo study of MP in erythrocytes concentrates is a new approach to explore the consequence of transfusion in polytransfused patients. Finally, the identification of a possible relationship between the oxidative stress and the production of MP may lead to the development of specific therapeutical approaches

The primary objectives of this study are to evaluate whether Yisui Shengxue Granules therapy can increase the hemoglobin level in peripheral blood and alleviate the symptoms, and at the same time, evaluate its safety in the treatment of Thalassemia with the syndrome of deficiency of liver-yin and kidney-yin, and asthenia of essence and blood.

There has been little progress for effective treatment of pain in sickle cell disease (SCD) patients. Many organizations have recognized that understanding the causes and reducing the burden of pain in SCD is critical in order to improve the quality of life in SCD patients. As patients with SCD face the challenge of living with both acute and chronic pain which is often improperly treated, our translational and interdisciplinary project aims to identify objective measures of pain sensitivity and its biochemical and genetic correlates. We hypothesize that SCD patients will have decreased tolerance to thermal and electrical stimuli.

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate that a sufficient number of iron-overloaded thalassemia (THAL), Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)and Diamond Blackfan Anemia (DBA) populations with similar duration of chronic transfusion, and age at start of transfusions would be available for a confirmatory study. The study will examine the hypothesis that a chronic inflammatory state in SCD leads to hepcidin- and cytokine-mediated iron withholding within the RES (reticuloendothelial system), lower plasma NTBI (non-transferrin bound iron) levels, less distribution of iron to the heart in SCD.

This is primarily an observational trial in patients with chronic anemia syndromes (sickle cell disease and thalassemia) and control subjects. The key purpose is to understand how brain blood flow reserve (the ability of the brain to increase its flow in response to stress) is altered in patients with chronic anemia. Since this parameter may depend on anemia severity, we will perform the MRI monitoring prior to and following clinically indicated transfusions in a subset of patients. Most patients will already be prescribed hydroxyurea as part of their standard of care. Since hydroxyurea could impact brain blood flow, there is also a small pilot study (20 patients, nonrandomized, open label) where MRI imaging will be performed prior to and following administration of hydroxyurea up to maximum tolerated dose. The study will enroll 90 adult subjects with transfusion independent sickle cell disease (70 SS, 10 SC, 10 Sβ0) and 60 patients with transfusion-dependent sickle cell disease. It will also include 10 transfusion independent thalassemia patients and 20 transfusion dependent thalassemia patients as well as 40 control subjects recruited from first degree relatives of the sickle cell disease population. All eligible subjects will be asked to provide informed consent before participating in the study.

Melphalan is a chemotherapy drug used extensively in bone marrow transplantation. The goal of this study is to determine what causes some children to have different drug concentrations of melphalan in their bodies and if drug levels are related to whether or not a child experiences severe side-effects during their bone marrow transplant. The hypothesis is that certain clinical and individual factors cause changes in melphalan drug levels in pediatric bone marrow transplant patients and that high levels may cause severe side-effects.