The proposed research study is a cross-sectional study enrolling young children with sickle cell disease between 5 and 12 years of age. They will be screened as outpatients for consent to perform pulmonary function testing (PFT) and echocardiography. In addition, the degree of bronchodilator response will be assessed at each session. To estimate presence of pulmonary hypertension, echocardiography will be performed at the time of PFT measures.
More information: clinicaltrials.gov, ITHANET Clinical Trials
The objective of this study is to assess the effect of alkali administration on bicarbonate and potassium levels in patients with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) and depressed serum bicarbonate levels. The study is a prospective non-blinded evaluation of tolerability and efficacy of alkali repletion with 4 weeks of observation and two sequential 4 week courses of escalating oral sodium bicarbonate treatment.
More information: clinicaltrials.gov, ITHANET Clinical Trials
The purpose of this study is to determine whether the investigational drug SelG1 when given to sickle cell disease patients either taking or not taking hydroxyurea is effective in preventing or reducing the occurrence of pain crises. SelG1 prevents various cells in the bloodstream from sticking together. By stopping these cell-cell interactions, SelG1 may prevent small blood vessels from becoming blocked and therefore reduce the occurrence and severity of pain crises. Other effects of SelG1 will also be evaluated, as well as the safety of the drug and how long it stays in the blood stream.
More information: clinicatrials.gov, ITHANET Clinical Trials
Patients who have sickle cell VOC are usually treated with opioids, such as morphine. However, this current way of treating them has not improved the health, medical outcomes, or rates of hospitalizations. In addition, since VOC can happen very frequently over a long period of time, giving opioids over and over again can cause both short-term and long-term problems. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is a way of treating pain that may provide a better alternative to repeatedly giving opioids over long periods of time. N2O has been shown to provide up to 3 hours of pain relief in inpatient patients with VOC whose pain did not improve with morphine infusions, and is used extensively in France, where almost half of 85 pediatric emergency departments use nitrous oxide to treat children with VOC whose pain did not get better with standard treatment with morphine. However, pain relief which N2O provides in the acute setting has not been well described. Therefore, the purpose of our study is to describe how well N2O can relieve the pain in patients with SCD who present to the emergency department and are experiencing a VOC.
More information: clinicaltrials.gov, ITHANET Clinical Trials