About this study
Sickle cell disease is a blood disorder that can cause many health problems, including pain, lung issues, and blood clots. These problems can lead to frequent hospital visits and even early death. Doctors want to understand why some children with sickle cell disease get these problems and others do not. Right now, there is not enough information to predict who will get sick or how bad their symptoms will be. This study hopes to find out what those risk factors are.
This study will include children and young adults with sickle cell disease who have had 1 or more of the following health problems:
- Pain episodes (called vaso-occlusive crises)
- Lung problems (called acute chest syndrome)
- Blood clots (called venous thromboembolism)
The study will collect health information from medical records and small blood samples from these patients during pain episodes, lung problems, and blood clots. The goal is to:
- Better understand how these problems develop
- Find substances in the blood (biomarkers) that predict the risk of problems
- Understand how to treat the problems better
Patients in the study will not receive any new treatments. Instead, researchers will collect information from their medical records and take small blood samples.
Learning more about the risk factors could help doctors create better treatments and prevent serious problems in the future.
Eligibility overview
- Sickle cell disease
- 0–20 years old
- Must be experiencing:
- Vaso-occlusive crisis
- Acute chest syndrome
- Venous thromboembolism