Caterina Minniti, MD

Dr. Minniti is Professor of Clinical Medicine and Pediatrics at Einstein College of Medicine. Additionally, she is Director of the Sickle Cell Center for Adults at Montefiore Medical Center, whose mission is to provide exceptional, seamless, comprehensive, compassionate and individualized care, education, counseling, and research for people living with sickle cell disease (SCD). Dr. Minniti is a clinical trial specialist and a translational researcher who believes that the best way to provide care for SCD patients is on a continuum, from birth to adulthood. Dr. Minniti's research focuses on understanding mechanisms that lead to end organ damage in order to identify early biomarkers and targeted therapies. Her interests have spanned from stroke to pulmonary hypertension and, most recently, leg ulcers as they represent a window into the vasculopathy in SCD. She aims to develop pathogenetically-based therapeutic approaches for preventing and treating SCD-related end organ damage.   Representative Publications: Prostacyclin-analog therapy in sickle cell pulmonary hypertension A retrospective review of acupuncture use for the treatment of pain in sickle cell disease patients: descriptive analysis from a single institution Effect of extended-release niacin on serum lipids and on endothelial function in adults with sickle cell anemia and low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels Efficacy and safety of deferasirox compared with deferoxamine in sickle cell disease: two-year results including pharmacokinetics and concomitant hydroxyurea IMPROVE trial: a randomized controlled trial of patient-controlled analgesia for sickle cell painful episodes: rationale, design challenges, initial experience, and recommendations for future studies Markers of severe vaso-occlusive painful episode frequency in children and adolescents with sickle cell anemia Opioid patient controlled analgesia use during the initial experience with the IMPROVE PCA trial: a phase III analgesic trial for hospitalized sickle cell patients with painful episodes   Online profile