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Review: selective filtration--a phlebotomy strategy for sickle cell therapy
1Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans VA Medical Center, LA 70146, USA.
The molecular defect in sickle cell disease is an error in the coding for hemoglobin synthesis. All of a patient's erythrocyte precursors share the genetic defect, but the patient's circulating erythrocytes are heterogenous in their degree of deformability. Periodic removal, by selective filtration, of the least deformable of the circulating erythrocytes might prove of clinical benefit.
The molecular defect in sickle cell disease is an error in the coding for hemoglobin synthesis. All of a patient's erythrocyte precursors share the genetic defect, but the patient's circulating erythrocytes are heterogenous in their degree of deformability. Periodic removal, by selective filtration, of the least deformable of the circulating erythrocytes might prove of clinical benefit.