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

Completed

Brief Summary: 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.

Detailed Description: 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.

Recruitment & Eligibility

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

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Report of Pain by Age Group	measured daily over the 3 transfusion cycles	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.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Report of Pain by Length of the Transfusion Cycle	measured daily over the 3 transfusion cycles	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.

Locations (9): Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
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Atlanta, Georgia, United States
Baylor College of Medicine
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Houston, Texas, United States
Children's Hospital Research Center Oakland
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Oakland, California, United States
Children's Hospital of Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, California, United States
Stanford University - School of Medicine
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Stanford, California, United States
Children's Memorial Hospital - Chicago
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Chicago, Illinois, United States
Weill Medical College of Cornell
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New York, New York, United States
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
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Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
University Health Network - Toronto General Hospital
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Toronto, Ontario, Canada