# Microvascular Cerebral Blood Flow Monitoring with Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy in Sickle Cell Anemia Children

> **NIH NIH F31** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $46,036

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Stroke is a devastating complication of sickle cell anemia (SCA), a blood disorder, where SCA pediatric patients
are 250 times more likely to have a stroke than age-matched healthy controls. Red blood cell abnormalities
contribute to vascular occlusion, significantly increasing the risk of stroke. By age 20, 11% of SCA pediatric
patients will experience an overt stroke, and by age 14, approximately 40% will have a silent infarct. Silent
infarcts do not present with clinically apparent symptoms; they can only be visualized on neuroimaging scans.
Early transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) screening of SCA patients, with rapid initiation of transfusion
therapy, has resulted in successful reduction of overt strokes. However, TCD suffers from poor specificity to
overt stroke (i.e., some TCD deemed low-risk patients still develop a stroke), and it is completely insensitive to
silent infarct risk. Microvascular measurements of blood flow show promise as a complementary tool to TCD
measurements. Yet, current imaging modalities that measure microvascular perfusion (i.e., MRI, PET) are not
applicable for routine use due to need for contrast and/or radiation, high costs, and/or sedation in children <6y.
Thus, there is a clinical need for a low-cost tool that measures microvascular cerebral blood flow in a routine
manner to detect any abnormalities in cerebral blood flow to ultimately mitigate stroke risk.
 Diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) is an emerging low-cost (<$50k), non-invasive optical modality
that utilizes near-infrared light to directly sense red blood cell movement and measure microvascular cerebral
blood flow. To date, we have demonstrated that DCS measures a higher resting state cerebral blood flow (by
3x) in sickle cell children in comparison to healthy controls. However, this increase is not comparable to the
commonly reported ~1.5x increase from MRI/PET. Since these SCA patients experience moderate to severe
anemia and DCS is sensitive to red blood cell movement and density, I hypothesize that this quantitative
difference in DCS blood flow measurements may be attributed to anemia. To test this hypothesis, I designed,
developed, and validated a microfluidic tissue-simulating platform, with hundreds of embedded microchannels.
This platform allows me to systematically manipulate flow rate, hematocrit, and vessel size for both healthy and
sickle blood. My preliminary data with healthy blood demonstrates the confounding influence of hematocrit on
DCS blood flow measurements. I used my preliminary data to develop an initial linear regression model, applied
it to my published clinical data, and now observe a ~1.7x increase between sickle cell and healthy controls.
 In this proposal, I will use my microfluidic tissue-simulating platform to determine the effects of hematocrit
on the DCS blood flow index (Aim 1). Next, I will develop and validate DCS correction algorithms against a “gold-
standard” perfusion modality, ar...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10146653
- **Project number:** 1F31HL154703-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Eashani Sathialingam
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $46,036
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-04-01 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10146653

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10146653, Microvascular Cerebral Blood Flow Monitoring with Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy in Sickle Cell Anemia Children (1F31HL154703-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10146653. Licensed CC0.

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