Improved QSM Pipeline to Investigate the Effect of Sickle Cell Anaemia on Brain Magnetic Susceptibility in Tanzanian Children at 1.5 Tesla

Motivation: Sickle cell anaemia (SCA) is a major global health burden, but disease mechanisms in the brain are not well understood. Goal(s): To improve a quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) pipeline and apply it to updated data to investigate brain susceptibility differences between SCA patients and controls. To investigate correlations between blood haemoglobin and brain magnetic susceptibility. Approach: QSM was optimised using denoising/masking approaches. Linear regressions of susceptibility against log(age) were used to compare age-corrected susceptibility in grey matter structures across the age range and correlate with haemoglobin. Results: Susceptibility increases with age differently for SCA vs controls. Haemoglobin was not significantly correlated with susceptibility. Impact: This work provides novel insight into the relationship between grey matter magnetic susceptibility and sickle cell anaemia, demonstrating differential trajectories with age between SCA patients and healthy controls. This may support the view of SCA as an accelerated aging syndrome.