View clinical trials related to Thalassemia.
Filter by:An Italian Multicentric randomized, open-label therapeutic trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of Neridronate in the treatment of Osteoporosis in patients with Thalassemia Major and Severe Thalassemia Intermedia. Efficacy and safety of the drug will be evaluated measuring at every visit this parameters: - haematological: Haemochrome - blood chemistry: creatinine, BUN, AST, ALT, Ca, P, proteins electrophoresis, total proteins. The prevalence of ectopic calcification and pseudoxantoma elasticum (PXE)-like syndrome and their follow-up will be evaluated at the beginning of the study vs 24 months through physical examination, abdominal echography and fundus oculi examination. During the trial other known risks factors for osteoporosis will be recorded, including prevalence and incidence of bone fractures and, if executed, Polimorphisms COLIA1. At the beginning of the study and at months 12 and 24 morphometry DXA will be performed to evaluate of the presence of bone deformities. Furthermore data regarding QOL and symptom pain will be evaluated trough administration of scale SF-36. At 12 months an intratrial analisis will be performed on efficacy and safety parameters in order to introduce possible amendments to the study design and to decide the prosecution of the trial During the trial all adverse events will be recorded
Background: - Thalassemia major (TM) is a chronic disorder that affects a person s ability to produce hemoglobin, resulting in anemia. Hemoglobin is a component of red blood cells that carries oxygen and nutrients to cells in the body. As a result, individuals require life-long blood transfusions and extensive medical management. Studies have shown that because of its demanding nature, TM might negatively affect an individual s quality of life, sense of self, and social integration, but little is known about affected individuals overall experiences with and perceptions of TM. - TM is caused by a genetic change in the thalassemia gene. The disease is passed to children by parents who carry one copy of the altered thalassemia gene. The parents are called carriers of the condition and have a 25 percent chance of having a child with TM. It is possible to screen for carriers of TM and use this information for pregnancy planning and management. - TM is common among people from South and South East Asia and is an important public health concern in Singapore. More research is needed to explore the lives of people with TM, and the societal perceptions that exist in Singapore about TM. Objectives: - To describe the familial, social, and professional experiences of individuals with TM. - To investigate the social messages being given out about TM in Singapore and the sources of those messages. - To explore the impact of these experiences, perceptions, and social messages on individuals who have TM. - To explore how the experiences and perceptions of individuals who have TM affect their life, sense of self, social integration, and compliance with medical treatment. Eligibility: - Residents of Singapore who are 14 years of age or older, can speak English, and currently have TM. - Parents of individuals with TM who are 14 years of age or older. Parents must be 21 years of age or older, be able to speak English, and have had caregiving responsibilities for their child at some point. Design: - All participants will have a one-time semi-structured interview, followed by a questionnaire to obtain demographic information. - Interviews will be conducted in Singapore and are expected to last for 30 to 90 minutes. - Individuals with TM will be asked about their own perceptions of TM; familial, social, and professional experiences involving TM; and their perceptions of others views and of social messages related to TM. - Parents of individuals with TM will be asked about their experiences in caring for a child with TM, talking to their child about TM, telling people about their child s TM, and interacting with health care providers.
This study aims to investigate the use of amlodipine, a drug that blocks the uptake of calcium into cells, in the prevention and treatment of iron overload in patients with thalassemia major. Since iron uses the same calcium channels to enter the heart, pancreas and other organs, blocking these channels might help to prevent the accumulation of iron in these tissues. The study will follow 10 patients with thalassemia major: 5 will openly receive amlodipine and 5 will serve as controls, not receiving any additional drugs. Patients will be monitored through one year with an additional year of follow up after the group using amlodipine stops its use. Monitoring will occur through the measurement of blood ferritin as well as live and heart T2* by MRI.
The purpose of this study is to initiate pilot studies to demonstrate that a sufficient number of iron-overloaded thalassemia, SCD and DBA populations with similar duration of chronic transfusion, and age at start of transfusions would be available for a confirmatory study and to validate that proposed multicenter MRI and biochemical studies can be completed. The study will examine the hypothesis that a chronic inflammatory state in Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) leads to hepcidin- and cytokine-mediated iron withholding within the RES (reticuloendothelial system), lower plasma NTBI (non transferrin bound iron) levels, less distribution of iron to the heart in SCD.
CD34+ stem cell selection in children, adolescents and young adults receiving partially matched family donor or matched unrelated adult donor allogeneic bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell transplant will be safe and well tolerated and be associated with a low incidence of serious (Grade III/IV) acute and chronic graft versus host disease (GVHD).
The primary hypothesis of this study is that glutamine supplementation will improve the erythrocyte glutamine/glutamate ratio, a biomarker of oxidative stress, hemolysis and pulmonary hypertension (PH) in sickle cell disease (SCD) and thalassemia (Thal) patients with PH. PH is defined as a tricuspid regurgitant jet velocity (TRV) on Doppler echocardiography > 2.5 m/s. We also predict that glutamine therapy will increase arginine bioavailability and subsequently alter sickle red cell endothelial interaction that can be identified using endo-PAT technology through nitric oxide (NO) generation, leading to changes in biological markers, and clinical outcome. Specifically our second hypothesis is that oral glutamine will decrease biomarkers of hemolysis and adhesion molecules, and improve the imbalanced arginine-to-ornithine ratio that occurs in hemolytic anemias, leading to improved arginine bioavailability and clinical endpoints of endothelial dysfunction and PH in patients with SCD and Thal.
The purpose of this research study is to study the safety of increasing doses of FBS0701, and to see how quickly the study medication is absorbed and how quickly it disappears from the bloodstream. FBS0701 is a new, oral iron chelator - a medication taken by mouth that increases the body's elimination of iron. Iron chelators are used in patients who develop iron overload from their transfusions. Four increasing doses of FBS0701 will be tested during this study. The study will start with the lowest dose given to 4 patients (3 mg/kg/day. The next group of 4 patients will receive the next high dose (8mg/kg/day only after the results of the first 4 patients are examined and it is determined safe to continue. Participating patients will take the study medication for 7 days and be followed for 28 days after their last dose to determine if they have any reactions to the study medication - therefore a total of 35 days on study. Patients will need to give up to 17 blood samples over the screening period and first 15 days of the study (a total of about 9 tablespoons). Patients will not need to stay overnight in the clinic but will need to visit the clinic 10 times for screening and on-study visits over the 35 days. Patients currently taking an iron chelator will need to stop that treatment for up to 22 days (up to 5 days before they start the study and for 15 days during the study). The results of this study will be helpful in determining the safety of the drug and the best doses of FBS0701 to be used in the next study which will assess the effectiveness of this new iron chelator.
This study is being done to determine if blood cell transplants, with either bone marrow or cord blood from unrelated donors, are effective in children with severe thalassemia and if this treatment approach has acceptable risks and side effects. This study includes a preparative regimen with Hydroxyurea, Alemtuzumab, Fludarabine, Thiotepa and Melphalan that provides intense host immunosuppression without myeloablation. The primary hypothesis is that this regimen will promote stable engraftment of unrelated donor hematopoietic cells, support normal erythropoiesis, and result in an event free survival of > 75% of children with thalassemia major.
Iron overload impaired growth in Thalassemia patients due to iron deposition in the endocrine glands, including the hypophysis and gonads. The issue of iron overload in Sickle Cell Anemia is recently studied more extensively and preliminary studies shows that endocrine damage is rarer in those patients. Growth velocity was not systematically studied in patients with Iron Overload, even in thalassemia patients in spite several studies that assess the endocrine function in those patients. In Sickle Cell Patients this issue was not studied. The purpose of this study is to assess the growth velocity in a cohort of Thalassemia Major and Intermedia patients and compare the results to another group of Sickle Cell patients, including Sickle cell thalassemia.
The study intends to summarize the clinical and laboratory characteristics of children with hemolytic anemia diagnosed as having alpha thalassemia mutations.