Mitigation of sickle cell crises using chaos-based analysis

Sickle-cell diseased persons suffer finite pain episodes (luring their lifetime, which are termed sickle cell crises. Using a sickle cell blood flow model, we mathematically demonstrate that the onset of a sickle cell crisis is chaotic. We further show that sickle cell crises may be mitigated by manipulating certain physiological parameters, namely the partial pressure of oxygen at 50% hemoglobin ([mathematical formula]%) and the kinetic dissociation rate of hemoglobin (kub) These physiological parameters control the chaotic nature of sickle cell crises and have the ability to transfer a person from a crisis state to a non-crisis state. We determine that sickle cell crises may only be mitigated within a critical time period (0 </- t </- 2.5hrs) after the onset of a sickle cell crisis. Based on our analysis, we classify three stages of a sickle cell crisis as weak chaos, strong chaos, and hyperchaos; which range from light to intense pain. Drugs may be developed, based on our analysis, to target these physiological parameters and mitigate sickle cell crises at its onset.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Atsaves, Louis

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Wesley Harris.

• Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/115646

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/115646