Sickle Cell Anemia Essay

Sickle Cell Anemia is a group of disorders that cause red blood cells to become misshapen and break down. Sickle Cell Anemia affects many people all over the world; Sickle cell disease is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, affecting 70,000 to 80,000 Americans (Ashley-Koch, Yang and Olney). Sickle Cell Anemia causes your red blood cells to be thin, stiff, and shaped like a sickle. But your red blood cells are supposed to be round and soft. When a person is diagnosed with sickle cell anemia the blood cells start to become clogged blood vessels, which can cause a great amount of health issues including: infections, stroke, and acute chest syndrome. People get sickle cell anemia by inheriting a mutated gene from both of their parents. On the down side, there is not currently an effective cure for sickle cell anemia, there are several different therapeutic approaches to treating and attempting to cure the disease and help people who are affected with sickle cell anemia better manage their symptoms. There have also been several great scientists that dedicated a lot of research to help find a cure for sickle cell anemia.

A blood test can check for hemoglobin S, the gene that causes Sickle Cell Anemia. Sickle Cell Anemia can also be diagnosed in an unborn baby by sampling some of the amniotic fluid to look for the sickle gene. In the United States, the test is part of a routine newborn screening, but older children and adults can be tested too. If the screening comes out positive, the doctors will perform a test to find out if the person has one or two sickle cell genes by determining how much of a percentage of gene is present. People with a small percentage of the gene present have one

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.

People with sickle cell anemia have inherited two sickle cell genes, one from each parent. A child who has inherited the sickle cell gene from only one parent will not develop the disease, but will have sickle cell trait. People who have sickle cell trait don't have sickle cell anemia or symptoms of the disease, but they can pass the sickle cell gene to their own children.

Sickle Cell anemia is a group of inherited red blood cell disorders, or a collection of recessive genetic disorders characterized by a hemoglobin variant called Hb S. Normal red blood cells are round like doughnuts, and they move through small blood tubes in the body to deliver oxygen. Sickle red blood cells become hard, sticky and shaped like sickles used to cut wheat. When these hard and pointed red cells go through the small blood tube, they clog the flow and break apart. This can cause pain, damage and a low blood count, or anemia. There is a substance in the red cell called hemoglobin that carries oxygen inside the cell. One little change in this substance causes the hemoglobin to form long hard rods in the red cell when it gives

This mutation paper is to give information on the Sickle Cell disease. This is a negative disease to have because the Sickle Cell Disease decreases the health of the person that has the disease and limits what they can and cannot do. Sickle Cell Disease is a red blood cell disease that causes ab normal hemoglobin to from in the veins. Hemoglobin is the protein that carries oxygen throughout the body to help with the respiratory system. The cause of the genetic mutation is inheritance or getting the disease from the parents the disease is found on chromosome 13 while the hemoglobin is still in beta phase on gene HB A. The disease typically shows symptoms within the first 5 to 6 months of birth and being diagnosed with Sickle Cell Disease. The symptoms include painful swelling on the hands and feet, and Jaundice, which causes a white color to form under the eyes, and turns the skin color yellow.

In this article, sickle cell anemia is defined as a hereditary disease that destroys red blood cells by causing them take on an elongated and rigid "sickle" shape. In addition, a different type of hemoglobin called Hemoglobin S, is the protein in red blood cells that carry oxygen throughout the body. This protein starts to wrap around other red blood cells when oxygen is lacking to form a helical shape. Once this happens the cells cluster together and elongate and the cells start to "sickle". A person who has sickle cell anemia can only get it if both of their parents carry the sickle cell trait, if only one parent has the trait then there children are at risk for having the trait.

Sickle cell anemia (SCA) is an inherited blood disease which causes normal, round, healthy red blood cells to transform into sickle-shaped cells. Normal red blood cells are flexible and can easily pass through capillaries to bring oxygen to different parts of the body. However, sickle cells are fragile, and can easily die, leading to anemia (red blood cell deficiency). SCA can also cause blood vessel occlusion (blockage of blood vessels), tissue infarctions (death due to lack of oxygen), bone, joint, and abdominal pain, yellow eyes and skin, pale skin, delayed growth, increased risk of infections, and damage to organs. The disease is passed on by autosomal recessive inheritance, which means both parents of a child must have the defective gene for the child to be affected. If only one gene is inherited, the victim becomes a carrier of the sickle cell trait, producing only some sickle cells with little or no symptoms. This means two people with the trait have a 25% chance of having a baby with sickle cell disease, 25% chance of them having no defects, and 50% chance of the baby becoming a carrier as well. When the gene is inherited, it mutates the beta (β) globin gene in chromosome 11, changing the hemoglobins produced using instructions from the gene from a healthy hemoglobin A (Hb A) to a mutated hemoglobin S (Hb S). Many tests can be done to check for sickle cell disease, the most common being an ordinary blood test, where the blood is examined for hemoglobin S. If the

The main goal for treating sickle cell anemia is to help prevent and reduce pain, and to help prevent infections. Other treatments help prevent any organ damage and strokes related to sickle cell anemia causes. To prevent pain, those with more severe conditions use hydroxyurea, a medicine that helps prevent painful crises, not to help when they occur. Mild pain can usually be treated with over the counter medication. More severe pain episodes need hospitalization. Bacterial infections can be a very serious complication for those with sickle cell anemia. To prevent infections in children and babies, doses of penicillin are needed, and all routine vaccinations. Many of the other symptoms and complications of sickle cell anemia are treated with blood transfusions. Blood is taken from a healthy individual and the red blood cells are thus transfused into the individual with sickle cell anemia.

Normal red blood cells are shaped like discs and look like donuts with no hole in the middle. They are rich in hemoglobin and carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. Sickle cell anemia is a disease in which the red blood cells become sickle shaped, or shaped like a crescent. Sickle cells also become sticky and tend to block the blood flow to the limbs and organs (“What is Sickle Cell Anemia?”). People who have sickle cell trait (SCT) do not have the disease, but instead are carriers of it. Most people who have SCT live their lives completely symptom free, however there are some complications that are associated with sickle cell trait. People who have the trait must be careful when they are completing strenuous exercise and when dehydrated. These cases, in extreme form, can lead to complications of sickle cell disease, and even death (“What You Should Know About the Sickle Cell Trait”).

The married couples I am counseling both carry the sickle cell trait. In sickle disease, the red blood cells are shaped like the letter C. The red blood cells are more likely to occlude blood flow by clogging the blood vessels due to its unusual shape. This can cause their future child to be in severe pain and a potential stroke. The married couple can have a prenatal test done to see if their unborn child inherited the disease. Chronic villus sampling and amniocentesis are the prenatal tests done to detect genetic disorder (Sickle cell Society, 2013). Their future child has a 50% chance of having the sickle cell trait, if both parents have the sickle cell trait. The future child has a 25% chance of having the sickle disease when both parents have sickle cell trait (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017).

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.

When they diagnosis a patient with Sickle Cell Anemia they perform a blood test. This test would check for hemoglobin S which is what carries oxygen to all the tissues. This would service as a conformation that an individual does indeed contains the disease. This blood test is a routine performed with newborns at birth in the hospitals; however, it can be tested on adults as well. What is test from newborns to determine if the disease is present is by extracting a sample of the amniotic fluid. The blood is usually taken form newborns from there heel or finger. Whereas, adults are taken from the vain in the arm. Once they conclude if its negative or positive further test will be done to see if there are one or two sickle cells existing.

Sickle Cell Anemia is a group of disorders that cause red blood cells to become misshapen and break down. Sickle cell disease is the most common inherited blood disorder in the United States, affecting 70,000 to 80,000 Americans (Ashley-Koch, Yang and Olney). Sickle Cell Anemia causes your red blood cells to be thin, stiff, and shaped like a sickle. But your red blood cells are supposed to be round and soft. A person that is diagnosed with sickle cell anemia, their blood cells start to become clogged, causing blood clots, which can cause a great amount of health issues including: infections, stroke, and acute chest syndrome. People get sickle cell anemia by inheriting a mutated gene from both of their parents. On the down side, there is not currently an effective cure for sickle cell anemia, there are several different therapeutic approaches to treating and attempting to cure the disease and help people who are affected with sickle cell anemia better manage their symptoms. There have also been several great scientists that dedicated a lot of research to help find a cure for sickle cell anemia.