Clinical Trial
Study Details
Fibroscan will be performed as a measure of liver stiffness. The study will be obtained free of charge in this study.
Ferriscan will be done to assess the quantity of liver iron in iron overloaded subjects.
Liver biopsy will be done and the results will be compared to Fibroscan results.
Patients with sickle cell disease many have a number of systemic complications, including liver problems. Some of these liver problems lead to liver fibrosis/cirrhosis, secondary to chronic blood transfusions. The purpose of this study is to investigate FibroScan readings in patients with sickle cell disease and iron overload secondary to blood transfusions, and to correlate the FibroScan results with Ferriscan. A comparison with the results of FibroScan to patients with Sickle cell without known liver disease, who have never been on chronic transfusions and with normal liver function profiles will also be made.The primary hypothesis is that the results of FibroScan will correlate with the results of Ferriscan and liver biopsy.
Study Overview
Liver biopsy is the gold standard to examine the liver for iron deposits and histology. However, liver biopsy is invasive and involves a risk of bleeding and pain. Biopsy may also miss significant pathology if the small biopsy specimen is taken from an uninvolved part of the liver. Non-invasive techniques such as MRI are now used to evaluate the liver iron content. MRI can visualize the whole liver and measure liver iron content. MRI, however, will not detect liver scarring.
Liver transient elastography (FibroScan) is a non-invasive ultrasound tool for assessing liver fibrosis or scarring by measuring liver stiffness (LSM). Compared with liver biopsy, FibroScan provides immediate results and is a painless, short (3 mins), simple procedure to perform. In some studies FibroScan reports have correlated well with liver biopsy results of fibrosis and cirrhosis, and with Ferriscan, ferritin and liver function tests.
This purpose of this study is to investigate the role of FibroScan in individuals with sickle cell anemia and iron overload or who have a diagnosis of liver disease, and to compare FibroScan readings with magnetic resonance imaging.
We will also compare the results of the Fibroscan with liver biopsy.
This study will also compare the results of FibroScan to patients with Sickle cell without any known liver disease, who have never been on chronic transfusions (defined as no more than 4 transfusions in lifetime) and who have normal liver function profiles.
Contacts and Locations
University of Miami
Miami, Florida 33136
United States