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Reduced global cerebral oxygen metabolic rate in sickle cell disease and chronic anemias
Author(s) -
Vu Chau,
Bush Adam,
Choi Soyoung,
Borzage Matthew,
Miao Xin,
Nederveen Aart J.,
Coates Thomas D.,
Wood John C.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
american journal of hematology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.456
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1096-8652
pISSN - 0361-8609
DOI - 10.1002/ajh.26203
Subject(s) - sickle cell anemia , medicine , anemia , cerebral blood flow , anemia of chronic disease , concordance , gastroenterology , disease , thalassemia , apparent oxygen utilisation , cardiology , oxygen , iron deficiency anemia , chemistry , organic chemistry
Anemia is the most common blood disorder in the world. In patients with chronic anemia, such as sickle cell disease or major thalassemia, cerebral blood flow increases to compensate for decreased oxygen content. However, the effects of chronic anemia on oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) and cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (CMRO 2 ) are less well understood. In this study, we examined 47 sickle‐cell anemia subjects (age 21.7 ± 7.1, female 45%), 27 non‐sickle anemic subjects (age 25.0 ± 10.4, female 52%) and 44 healthy controls (age 26.4 ± 10.6, female 71%) using MRI metrics of brain oxygenation and flow. Phase contrast MRI was used to measure resting cerebral blood flow, while T 2 ‐relaxation‐under‐spin‐tagging (TRUST) MRI with disease appropriate calibrations were used to measure OEF and CMRO 2 . We observed that patients with sickle cell disease and other chronic anemias have decreased OEF and CMRO 2 (respectively 27.4 ± 4.1% and 3.39 ± 0.71 ml O 2 /100 g/min in sickle cell disease, 30.8 ± 5.2% and 3.53 ± 0.64 ml O 2 /100 g/min in other anemias) compared to controls (36.7 ± 6.0% and 4.00 ± 0.65 ml O 2 /100 g/min). Impaired CMRO 2 was proportional to the degree of anemia severity. We further demonstrate striking concordance of the present work with pooled historical data from patients having broad etiologies for their anemia. The reduced cerebral oxygen extraction and metabolism are consistent with emerging data demonstrating increased non‐nutritive flow, or physiological shunting, in sickle cell disease patients.