Cerebral Blood Flow in Children and Adults With Sickle Cell Anemia.

ABSTRACT:

Background and objectives

Understanding age-related changes in cerebral blood flow (CBF, rate of blood delivery to brain tissue) in sickle cell anemia (SCA) is a prerequisite to incorporating CBF as a marker of brain health. CBF decreases from school-age through adulthood in nonanemic people. In SCA, CBF is generally increased to compensate for anemia, but knowledge of age-related norms is limited. We hypothesized that age-related CBF trajectories differ for SCA vs nonanemic healthy persons: CBF increases from childhood to early adulthood in SCA to compensate for reduced blood oxygen content and then plateaus because of reduced vasodilatory capacity with older age.

Methods

Children and adults with SCA and race-matched controls (hemoglobin [Hb] AA) aged 6-45 years were enroll

SUBMITTER: Jordan LC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12614261 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature