Clinical Trial: Blood Flow and Pain Crises in People With Sickle Cell Disease
Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Observational
Official Title: Measurement of the Reactive Hyperemia Index in Sickle Cell Patients During Pain Crisis and After Recovery
Brief Summary:
Background:
- Many people with sickle cell disease have repeated episodes of severe pain that lasts for days, requiring hospital care. These episodes, called pain crises, may be caused by changes in blood flow. Researchers want to study blood flow in people with sickle cell disease who are having a pain crisis and compare it with their blood flow after the pain crisis has resolved. They also want to compare these measurements against blood flow in healthy people who do not have sickle cell disease.
Objectives:
- To study whether changes in blood flow cause pain crises in people with sickle cell disease.
Eligibility:
- Individuals at least 18 years of age who have sickle cell disease and are being treated for a pain crisis.
- Individuals at least 18 years of age who have sickle cell disease and are not experiencing a pain crisis.
- Healthy volunteers matched by age and gender with the participants who have sickle cell disease.
Design:
- Participants will be screened with a physical exam and medical history. Blood and urine samples will be collected.
- Participants having a sickle cell pain crisis will have two visits, one during the crisis and one about 4 weeks after the crisis has resolved.
- Participants not having a sickle cell pain crisis will have one or two study visits. Blood samples will be collected during at least one of these visits.
- Heal
Detailed Summary:
Severe recurrent pain is the most common cause of acute morbidity in sickle cell disease1. The underlying pathogenesis was initially thought to be ischemia from obstruction of capillary beds by stiffened red blood cells; however, there is evidence that other factors contribute to the pathogenesis of sickle cell pain crisis, such as inflammation and coagulation, ischemia-reperfusion injury, angiogenesis balance, and vasomotor tone processes that are regulated by endothelial nitric oxide.
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.
In this study, our primary objective is to measure the reactive hyperemia index (a measure of the endothelial response to shear stress) in twenty sickle cell subjects during acute pain crisis and to compare it with the reactive hyperemia index measured after recovery from pain crisis. This will identify whether there are acute changes in endothelial cell function during sickle cell pain crisis. Our secondary objective is to compare the reactive hyperemia index of thirty-five sickle cell subjects in steady state versus the reactive hyperemia index of thirty-five healthy control subjects. This will identify whether there are chronic differences in endothelial function between sickle cell subjects and healthy control su
Sponsor: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Current Primary Outcome:
Original Primary Outcome:
Current Secondary Outcome:
- Skin Blood Flood [ Time Frame: 1 month ]
- Skin Temperature [ Time Frame: 1 month ]
- Tissue oxygenation [ Time Frame: 1 month ]
Original Secondary Outcome:
Information By: National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)
Dates:
Date Received: March 30, 2012
Date Started: March 19, 2012
Date Completion:
Last Updated: April 29, 2017
Last Verified: November 25, 2016
