The progress made in researching sickle cell disease over the past few years has been unparalleled in the history of the disease. While Emory University School of Medicine is one of the hottest research spots in the country, doctors and researchers all over the country are focusing on both easing the symptoms and finding a cure for the disease. While Emory conducts bone marrow transplants and transfusions to prevent strokes in children, Duke University is also focusing on gene therapy, and continuing studies are concentrating on methods to prevent or ease the excruciating pain often associated with sickle cell disease.

Perhaps the most promising news comes from Emory where studies have demonstrated that blood transfusions can prevent first strokes in children with sickle cell anemia. To conduct the tests, researchers used the Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound (TCD), a device that uses painless ultrasound to detect areas of increased blood flow in the blood vessels of the brain. When the blood vessels are narrowed due to sickle cell damage, the blood makes a louder noise as it travels faster through the narrow area. When this test is positive, there is a greater risk of having a stroke and further testing is necessary.

Children accepted into the study had to have sickle cell anemia, no history of stroke, and they had to have tested at risk for stroke by undergoing two TCDs. The children were separated into two groups: 63 received transfusions and 67 received standard care. The study was so successful in proving that the children treated with transfusions had nine fewer strokes, that it was terminated.

This Stroke Prevention Trial in Sickle Cell Anemia (STOP) STUDY was conducted at the Georgia Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center at Grady Memorial Hospital and Emory University, one of the fourteen STOP centers. Led by Dr. Robert Adams of the Medical College of Georgia and supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the study was vital because sickle cell disease is one of the few conditions associated with childhood stroke, occurring in eight to 12 percent of children with certain types of sickle cell disease. The STOP STUDY researchers were building on earlier successful research indicating that transfusions to children with sickle cell disease who have already had one stroke could generally prevent second and third strokes.