View clinical trials related to Thalassemia.
Filter by: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.
Sickle cell nephropathy is a known complication of sickle cell anemia (SCA) manifested by increase in glomerular filtration rate (glomerular hyperfiltration) and results in proteinuria and chronic renal failure. Our goal is to examine the prevalence of proteinuria and microalbuminuria as an early predictive factor of glomerular injury, among young people who suffer from SCA as well as those who suffer from combined sickle cell/beta-thalassemia.
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 is prospective randomized, double blind study designed to evaluate the use of zoledronic acid in the prevention prevention of bone loss post allogenic BMT done for beta-thalassemia major patients.
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.
Silymarin, a flavonolignan complex isolated from Silybum marianum, has a strong antioxidant, hepatoprotective and iron chelating activities. The present study has been designed to investigate the therapeutic activity of orally administered silymarin in patients with thalassemia major under conventional iron chelation therapy. A 6-month randomized, double-blind, clinical trial was conducted in 140 beta-thalassemia major patients in two well-matched groups. Patients are randomized to receive a silymarin tablet (140 mg) three times a day plus conventional desferrioxamine therapy or the same therapy but a placebo tablet instead of silymarin. Clinical laboratory tests of iron status and liver function are assessed at the beginning and the end of the trial.
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.