Red blood cell mechanical sensitivity improves in patients with sickle cell disease undergoing chronic transfusion after prolonged, subhemolytic shear exposure

Abstract

We found that chronic transfusion therapy normalizes the MS threshold above which RBC subhemolytic damage occurs after prolonged shear exposure in SCD. An important and novel finding in transfused patients with SCD was the improvement in RBC deformability in response to prolonged shear exposure over the physiologic range.