Simple chronic transfusion therapy, a crucial therapeutic option for sickle cell disease, improves but does not normalize blood rheology: What should be our goals for transfusion therapy?
Affiliations: [a] Division of Cardiology, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| [b] Department of Biophysics and Physiology, University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Jon A. Detterich, MD, Division of Cardiology, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, 4650 Sunset Blvd, Mailstop 34, Los Angeles, CA 90027, USA. Tel.: +1 323 361 8741; Fax: +1 323 361 1513; E-mail: jdetterich@chla.usc.edu.
Abstract: Sickle cell anemia is characterized by a mutation resulting in the formation of an abnormal beta-hemoglobin called hemoglobin S. Hemoglobin S polymerizes upon deoxygenation, causing impaired red blood cell deformability and increased blood viscosity at equivalent hematocrits. Thus, sickle cell disease is a hemorheologic disease that results in various pathologic processes involving multiple organ systems including the lungs, heart, kidneys and brain. Red blood cell mechanics and the perturbations on blood flow-endothelial interaction underlie much of the pathology found in sickle cell disease. Transfusion therapy is one of the few therapeutic options available to patients, acting as both primary and secondary prevention of stroke. Transfusion therapy, both simple and exchange, is also used for unremitting and frequent pain crises and pulmonary hypertension. Therefore, understanding basic rheologic changes following transfusion inform other therapeutic options that aim to mitigate this diffuse pathologic process. This review will aim to highlight transfusion effects on blood rheology.
