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- Alpha Thalassemia
- Anemia
- Beta Thalassemia (Cooley's Anemia)
- Bleeding Disorders
- Blood Disorders
- Blood Donations and Blood Banking
- Blood Transfusions
- Hematology and Blood Disorders
- Hemolytic Anemia
- Hemophilia
- Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura
- Iron Deficiency Anemia
- Megaloblastic (Pernicious) Anemia
- Overview of Blood and Blood Components
- Thalassemia
Hematology (Blood Disorders)
Research
The active basic and clinical research in hematology focus on understanding bleeding and clotting disorders and improving how they are managed. The Hospital is one of five institutions that constitute the Consortium for Clinical Studies of Thalassemia, funded by the National Institutes of Health. The consortium is currently investigating the incidence of osteoporosis and its potential treatment with pamidronate, a new powerful biphosphonate, and the treatment of hepatitis C patients with peglylated interferon.
Hematologists at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital--in cooperation with the Hospital's transfusion service and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia--are working on inactivation of red blood cells for transfusion. They are evaluating the efficacy and safety of a compound that inactivates all viruses and bacteria when it is added to red blood cells. In addition, residual lymphocytes (white blood cells responsible for immune responses) also will be inactivated, eliminating the risk of a graft being rejected in even the most immunocompromised patients.
Other research projects are investigating:
- the efficacy of intramuscular administration of a new chelator (molecule to which the iron will bind) compound nearing FDA approval for removing excess iron from the blood;
- iron-induced cardiomyopathy in patients with transfusional iron overload as well as the relationship between body iron burden and cardiac abnormalities that are assessed by special 24-hour electrocardiographs (ECG);
- development and evaluation of new iron chelating agents for the treatment of iron overload;
- mechanisms of malarial anemia in Thailand through collaborative, long-term studies.
Hematologists at the Hospital developed a SQUID (superconducting quantum interference device) magnetic susceptomer to provide the liver iron without the need for invasive liver biopsy. This instrument also is used to diagnose and management iron overload. Its ease, comfort, safety and rapidity enables frequent, serial investigations possible. The Hospital is the lead institution in a National Institutes of Health Bioengineering Research Partnership to develop the next generation of SQUID instruments.
Hematologists at the Sickle Cell Center of Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital are:
- participating in a major national "STOP Study" to detect and prevent children at risk for stroke, a complication that frequently occurs in children with sickle cell diseases;
- assessing the frequency of parvovirus infections in children with sickle cell diseases and the incidence of aplastic crises among these children--which is preliminary to the development and evaluation of a vaccine;
- in the advanced stage of developing a technique for the prenatal diagnosis of sickle cell diseases that uses a sample of maternal blood and avoids invasive procedures (this technique will be applicable for the prenatal diagnosis of all single-gene genetic disorders);
- developing a new technique to simultaneously detect all the genetic factors of sickle cell disease in patients.
- Pediatric Hematology
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