Cerebral Oxygen Saturation in Sickle Cell Patients Treated with Hydroxyurea:.

Recently we reported the use of a non-invasive near-infrared optical spectroscopy technique to measure cerebral oxygenation (cerebral oximetry, rSO2%) in agroup of 27 adult patients with sickle cell disease (Eur J Clin Invest, 34:143,2004). The sickle cell patients’ rSO2 values were significantly lower (mean 47.7%) than those in normal subjects (mean 61.3%) even though none of the patients had clinical evidence of stroke or cerebral ischemia. We included patients with all Hb phenotypes, and regardless of hydroxyurea (HU) treatment. Transfusions improved cerebral oxygen saturation but the post-transfusion values still did not reach normal levels. Our findings were corroborated independently by Raj et al. who studied 25 children with sickle cell disease (J Pediat Hematol Oncol 26:279,2004). In order to determine if long-term HU treatment affects rSO2, we analyzed cerebral oximetry results in a subset of 31 patients with sickle cell anemia (Hb SS). Eleven of them were on long-term (more than 6 months) HU treatment at stable doses (1000–1500 mg/day). The table shows that the mean rSO2, Hb, Hct, and MCV in HU-treated patients were significantly higher than those in sickle cell anemia (SCA) patients not on HU. The rSO2 in HU-treated patients was 12.5% higher than in SS patients not on this drug. By comparison, we previously reported a 24% increment in rSO2 following transfusions.

A group of 8 patients who were on long-term HU treatment were given also single 1000 mg oral doses of HU and their rSO2 was measured for 12 hours without noticeable change in cerebral oxygenation. Nor did rSO2 change after oxygen inhalation (3L/min). The cause of the low rSO2 in sickle cell patients is unknown and still under investigation. It is probably not related exclusively to the anemia, since, as previously reported, anemic subjects without sickle cell disease appear to have normal rSO2. These preliminary results indicate that chronic HU treatment is associated with higher rSO2 values in SCA. If validated in a larger number of patients, our findings suggest that cerebral oximetry could be a useful, non-invasive method for assessing a new in vivo effect of HU and red cell transfusion in sickle cell disease: increased blood oxygen saturation in the cerebral vasculature.

HYDROXYUREA AND CEREBRAL OXYGEN SATURATION IN PATIENTS WITH SICKLE CELL DISEASE