Older Brain Age Observed in Adults With Sickle Cell Anemia
By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Jan. 24, 2025 -- Adults with sickle cell anemia (SCA) and healthy controls with greater economic deprivation have older brain age, according to a study published online Jan. 17 in JAMA Network Open.
Andria L. Ford, M.D., from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional study of 230 adults with and without SCA (123 and 107, respectively) who underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and cognitive assessment. Brain age was estimated using the DeepBrainNet model; brain age gap (BAG) was defined as the estimated brain age minus the chronological age.
The researchers found that compared with individuals in the control cohort, participants with SCA had a larger median BAG (14.2 versus 7.3 years; mean difference, 6.13 years). Relative to the reference DeepBrainNet population, individuals in the control cohort demonstrated a larger BAG (mean difference, 7.52 years). In the control cohort, higher economic deprivation was associated with BAG (β per 1 percent area deprivation index [ADI], 0.079), while in participants with SCA, intracranial vasculopathy and hemoglobin S percentage were associated with BAG (β, 6.562 and 0.089, respectively). BAG demonstrated the largest effect size for cognitive outcomes in the control cohort (e.g., executive function: r = −0.430), while in the SCA cohort, white matter mean diffusivity (MD) demonstrated the largest effect size for cognitive outcomes (e.g., executive function: r = −0.365). BAG mediated the association of ADI with cognitive performance across the study population, while BAG and white matter MD mediated the association of SCA with cognitive performance.
"These findings suggest that brain MRI estimates of age may provide a neuroimaging biomarker of cognitive outcomes in healthy and SCA populations," the authors write.
Several authors disclosed ties to the biopharmaceutical and medical technology industries.
Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.
© 2025 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
Posted January 2025
Read this next
Advanced Biological Age Linked to Increased Risk for Incident Dementia
FRIDAY, May 2, 2025 -- Advanced biological age (BA) may be a risk factor for incident dementia, according to a study published online April 30 in Neurology. Yacong Bo, Ph.D...
Exposure to Smoke Pollution Ups Risk for Hospitalization for Respiratory Disease
FRIDAY, May 2, 2025 -- For older adults in the Western United States, exposure to high levels of smoke pollution is associated with an increase in hospitalizations for respiratory...
Exercise Helps Reduce Side Effects From Cancer Treatment
THURSDAY, May 1, 2025 -- Exercise mitigates adverse outcomes associated with cancer and its treatments, according to a review published online April 29 in the British Journal...
More news resources
- FDA Medwatch Drug Alerts
- Daily MedNews
- News for Health Professionals
- New Drug Approvals
- New Drug Applications
- Drug Shortages
- Clinical Trial Results
- Generic Drug Approvals
Subscribe to our newsletter
Whatever your topic of interest, subscribe to our newsletters to get the best of Drugs.com in your inbox.