Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Demonstrates the Benefit of Erythracytapheresis in Sickle Cell Disease Adult Patients with Cerebral Vasculopathy.

Background: Cerebral vasculopathy can induce chronic cerebral hypoperfusion leading to stroke in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) and is treated by blood exchange transfusion (BET). However, no prospective clinical study has demonstrated the benefit of BET in adults with SCD and cerebral vasculopathy. Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) is a recent non-invasive method complementary to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).