Although sickle cell anaemia (SCA) affects the brain, causing stroke and neurocognitive complications, its pathophysiological mechanisms are poorly understood. Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) reveals alterations in tissue composition. Therefore, we applied QSM to investigate changes in brain susceptibility in 168 SCA patients compared to 47 healthy controls scanned at 1.5 Tesla in Tanzania. We found a significant susceptibility decrease in SCA vs. controls in the caudate nucleus and globus pallidus and a significant increase in susceptibility in the red nucleus and dentate. Blood haemoglobin levels had a significant positive correlation with susceptibility in the globus pallidus, caudate nucleus and putamen.
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Lee et al. (2024) studied this question.
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