Knisely Submits Proposal to Heilbrunn Nurse Scholar Award Program

Kudos to Mitchell Knisely, assistant professor, for the submission of a proposal to the Heilbrunn Nurse Scholar Award Program entitled “Phenotypic Characterization and Genetics of Pain Profiles in Sickle Cell Disease." The proposal seeks funding for an 18-month period with a proposed start date of April 1, 2019.

The study will use self-report and electronic health record data from the SCDIC research registry and blood specimens will be collected for genetic data collection. Latent class analyses will be used to identify distinct subgroups with similar pain symptom profiles, and multinomial logistic regression models will be used to evaluate the relationship between genetic polymorphisms and pain subgroup membership. Findings from this line of research can assist nurses in identifying patients at risk for high pain burden and potential new targets for interventions to prevent or manage pain in this population.

The specific aims for this descriptive, cross-sectional study of people who are 15-45 years and have a confirmed SCD diagnosis are to: (1) Identify latent class phenotypes for individuals (n=276) with distinct pain profiles using validated SCD pain measures capturing pain frequency, severity, quality, and impact.  (2) In a cohort of patients (n=72), examine genetic differences in four single nucleotide polymorphisms in candidate inflammatory genes (i.e., IL-1B rs1143634, IL-6 rs1800795, IL-8 rs4073, TNFA rs1799964) between the identified pain latent class phenotypes.