Assessment of Pain in People With Thalassemia Who Are Treated With Regular Blood Transfusions

Carelon Research32 enrolled

Overview

Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder that can result in mild to severe anemia. Regular blood transfusions, which refresh the healthy red blood cell supply, are one treatment for thalassemia. People with thalassemia often experience pain, but the exact source of pain remains unknown. This study will examine how pain varies during the blood transfusion cycle in people with thalassemia who are treated with regular blood transfusions.

Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder in which the body makes an abnormal form of hemoglobin-the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. People with thalassemia often experience fatigue, shortness of breath, and pain. There have been no previous research studies that have fully examined pain levels in people with thalassemia, and as a result, the sources of pain remain unknown. This study is a substudy of the Assessment of Pain study, which is a Thalassemia Clinical Research Network (TCRN) study that is examining the prevalence and severity of pain in people with transfusion-dependent thalassemia and non-transfusion-dependant thalassemia. This study will enroll a subset of participants from the Assessment of Pain study who have transfusion-dependant thalassemia. The purpose of this study is to examine whether pain varies during the blood transfusion cycle and whether the length of the transfusion cycle affects pain levels in people with transfusion-dependent thalassemia. Participants will complete daily questionnaires through an automated telephone system to assess pain levels during three blood transfusion cycles. Each transfusion cycle will last between 2 to 4 weeks, depending on the individual needs of the participant, and the cycles will be separated by at least 3 months but no more than 4 months. Prior to each transfusion cycle, study researchers will review participants' medical records for certain blood level measurements.

Study Type

OBSERVATIONAL

Enrollment

Conditions

Thalassemia

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Participating in the Thalassemia Clinical Research Network Assessment of Pain study * Has a transfusion dependence of at least eight transfusions per year * Diagnosis of beta thalassemia or E-beta-thalassemia * Experiences at least "mild" pain in the 1 month before study entry, as measured by the response to the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) question #6 from the Assessment of Pain study Exclusion Criteria: * Unwillingness or inability to complete the Brief Pain Inventory Short Form (BPI-SF) on a daily basis

Locations (9)

Children's Hospital of Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California, United States

Children's Hospital Research Center Oakland

Oakland, California, United States

Stanford University - School of Medicine

Stanford, California, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Report of Pain by Age Group

Subjects reported whether or not they had pain (yes/no) during each transfusion cycle (data on up to 3 transfusion cycles were collected for each subject). The percent of subject-cycles with pain was calculated for the quartiles of the transfusion cycle.

Time frame: measured daily over the 3 transfusion cycles

Secondary Outcomes

Report of Pain by Length of the Transfusion Cycle

Time frame: measured daily over the 3 transfusion cycles

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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