A Study on a Boy with Sickle Cell Anemia

Sickle Cell Anemia is an inherited form of anemia, a condition in which there isn’t enough healthy red blood cells to carry sufficient oxygen throughout your body. Normally a person has flexible and round blood cells. With Sickle Cell anemia, Hemoglobin molecules in red blood cells, that carry oxygen in the body, are defective causing some of the red blood cells to change and form a sickle, or crescent moon shape.

“In the United States, it's estimated that sickle cell anemia affects 70,000–100,000 people, mainly African Americans” (NHLBI, NIH, Who is at risk for sickle cell anemia). SCD is a disease that is a serious disorder in which the body can make normal blood cells and sickle shape cells. Sickle shape cells can block the blood flow in your vessels and cause pain or organ damage also put you in risk for infections. SCD has no cure available but there are many treatments out there to deal with the complications of it. From over years treatments did get better from way back in the day doctors have learned. Sickle cell disease has lack of attention and funding because it’s only affecting

Sickle Cell Disease is an illness that affects people all across the globe. This paper will give a description of the sickness through the discussion of the causes, symptoms, and possible cures. Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is a "group of inherited red blood cell disorders."(1) These disorders can have various afflictions, such as pain, damage and a low blood count--Sickle Cell Anemia.

Sickle cell anemia is a hereditary disorder that mostly affects people of African ancestry, but also occurs in other ethnic groups, including people who are of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern descent. More than 70,000 Americans have sickle cell anemia. And about 2 million Americans - and one in 12 African Americans - have sickle cell trait (this means they carry one gene for the disease, but do not have the disease itself).

Sickle-cell Anemia is a genetic disorder that causes sever pain in the lower back, legs, arms, abdomen, and chest. Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body. The body uses oxygen to make energy. Inside the red blood cell is a protein called hemoglobin, which hooks on to the oxygen. People with sickle-cell anemia have abnormal hemoglobin known as hemoglobin S. Hemoglobin S changes the blood cells into the shape of a sickle. These abnormal sickle cells stick to the blood vessel walls causing blockages. These blockages do not allow blood to flow. This is what causes the pain. People get sickle cell disease when a parent has a mutated hemoglobin gene. Their child has a chance of inheriting the sickle-cell trait or getting sickle-cell Anemia.

Last semester in clinical, there was a patient with sickle cell anemia and he automatically sparked an interest in me. The patient was quite young and was in so much pain that he could not even bear to be touched by the nurse and reported a pain level of 8. Before my encounter with this patient, I did not know much about sickle cell anemia and decided to do some research on this disease. In my research, I learned that a majority of these patients go through acute pain episodes that occur chronically. After learning this and thinking about the young boy in the hospital, I wanted to discover more about how the pain in these patients are managed and controlled.

The sickle cell disease affects about 100,000 people in the America. The most common ethnic group the sickle cell anemia is seen in is African Americans and Hispanics. Approximately one in every ten African American and one in every one hundred Hispanic Americans have the sickle cell trait. Approximately two million people have the sickle cell trait in America. Approximately one in five- hundred African Americans and one in one thousand to one thousand and four hundred Hispanic-Americans have sickle cell disease. No universal cure has been found for sickle cell anemia (“Facts About Sickle Cell Trait And Disease,”n.d.). Sickle cell anemia affects many Americans and a universal cure needs to be found.

Sickle Cell Disease or also widely known as Sickle Cell Anemia is a genetic mutation caused in red blood cells destroys its own cells within and reshaping the cell wall resembling crescent or sickle shape; getting its name of the sickle cell disease. These sickled shaped cells attempt to perform its normal function of circulating oxygenated and deoxygenated RBC and gets lodged in small vessels causing vaso-occlusion. Where vaso-occlusive take effect, rest of the body is not receiving oxygen becoming oxygen deprived results in acute and chronic pain and organ damage (Valerie Mann-Jiles, 2015). This disease a lifelong condition affecting not just the person carrying the disease but the whole family. Treating this disease

Locate, cite (quote or paraphrase) and share a reliable information source(s) that discusses a degenerative disease experienced at a higher rate among Black/African Americans (vs. American majority statistics)

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is an inherited disorder that produces sickle or crescent shape red blood cells. Thus, the mutated erythrocytes result in an inadequate supply of oxygen being transported throughout the body. Research shows that among those affected the most with the sickle cell gene are African Americans. In recent years, we have seen a decrease in mortality and morbidity rates as a result of new approaches to treating the disease. The more we understand the pathophysiology of sickle cell anemia, the more we learn about developing therapies for genetic disorders such as SCA. In this paper, we will briefly discuss what sickle cell anemia is and possible treatments for people with sickle cell anemia such as gene therapy and new drugs.

Sickle cell disease is an inherited form of anemia. This means both parents must pass on the defective gene for a child to be affected. The gene is more common in families that come from Saudi Arabia, Africa, Mediterranean countries, India, the Caribbean islands, and North, South, and Central America of African descent.

Sickle cell disease is a chronic condition that a person can inherit from their parents in which it effects the globular structure of the patients red blood cells. A more sickle shaped structure, which can alter a person’s blood flow, replaces the more common globular structure. This impairment in blood flow can lead to blood clots, severe debilitating pain and damage to vital organs such as the liver, kidney and spleen. This disease currently affects over 90,000 people in the United States, with the majority of them being African American and

Sickle Cell Anemia is a hereditary disease that changes the smallest and most important components of the body. A gene causes the bone marrow in the body to make sickled shapes, when this happens; it causes the red blood cell to die faster. This is what causes Hemolytic Anemia. Older children and adults with sickle cell disease may experience a few complications, or have a pattern of ongoing problems that shorten their lives. The most common and serious complications of sickle cell disease are anemia, pain, fatigue, and organ failure. Today there are many alternatives and opportunities that a sickle cell patient may consider. One outlined in this paper is the Hydroxyurea method.

Sickle-cell disease majorly affects the hemoglobin that is present in our blood. The job of hemoglobin is to help transport oxygen and carbon dioxide to and from the cells throughout our body. Hemoglobin is present specifically in our red blood cells. Each red blood cell contains two hundred and eighty million hemoglobin molecules. Red blood cells normal shape is a biconcave shape because of the lack of many organelles and a nucleus. The shape is so important to a red blood cells functioning that if it is not shaped normally it has major consequences. The shape helps them to fit through capillaries easier and also allows for an increased surface area which results in easier gas exchange. Sickle-cell disease is a genetic disease that causes issues in the oxygen/carbon dioxide carrying hemoglobin molecules that are present in our red blood cells.

Sickle cell anemia is an anemia that is inherited and mostly affects people whose heritage can be traced back to places where malaria was prevalent. There are approximately 100,000 Americans that have the disease and many more with the trait. Several of my family members are afflicted by this medical condition that causes red blood cells to take on an irregular shape.