Sickle cell disease (SCD) and thalassemia are genetic disorders inducing anemia of differing pathophysiology. A primary therapy for preventing certain SCD complications (e.g., stroke) and for thalassemia major is regular red blood cell (RBC) transfusion, coupled with iron chelation to prevent the complications of transfusion-induced iron overload. For patients with pediatric hematology-oncology diagnoses with chemotherapy-induced aplasia, RBC transfusion is also common, but the degree of transfusion-induced iron overload and its implications for these patients is incompletely understood. Because iron-related tissue toxicity is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in regularly transfused patients, developing strategies to minimize iron loading and iron toxicity is a key objective of this proposal (study Aim #2), stemming from the objective to optimize RBC unit characteristics that patients with SCD and thalassemia receive beyond RBC phenotype matching for Rh C, E and K antigens (study Aim #1). The study will enroll patients with SCD, thalassemia or pediatric oncologic diagnoses receiving eligible transfusion at 6 hospital sites in the United States, as well as patients with SCD at 5 hemocenters in Brazil.
Red Blood Cell - IMProving trAnsfusions for Chronically Transfused recipients (RBC-IMPACT) is an observational cohort study to assess donor, component, and recipient factors that contribute to RBC efficacy in chronically and episodically transfused patients. The objective of the study is to determine how specific genetic and non-genetic factors in donors and recipients may impact RBC survival after transfusion - in short, what factors on both the donor and recipient side may improve the efficacy of the transfusion.