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 is a blood disease. People with sickle cell anemia have crescent moon shaped blood cells that are hard and sticky. When the Sickle cells move through blood tubes, they can clog blood flow and break apart. This can cause main, damage, and a low blood count. The symptoms of the disease are not life threatening, however are not enjoyable. Sickle cell anemia can cause you to experience dizziness, headaches, and shortness of breath. Your skin may also turn more yellow or pale than it usually is. Sickle cell is an inherited disease. It is an unpreventable disease that you are born with. If you have a sickle cell gene, you do not have sickle cell, however your children have a 25% chance of having sickle cell anemia. This blood disorder can cause pain and discomfort but it is unlikely that your life will be in danger if you have the disease.
(NHLBI, 2015) There are a few scenarios of the passing of the disease or trait from the parent to the offspring. If one parent has the gene it can be passed to the child, causing the child to be a carrier of the trait. In other words, the child will be able to produce normal hemoglobin as well as the sickle shaped hemoglobin. They will also be able to pass it to their offspring. If both parents carry the trait the child has a 50 percent chance of being a carrier, percent chance of not getting the gene at all, and 25 percent chance of having sickle cell anemia.
Sickle cell anaemia is a disorder affecting the red blood cells and up to 100,000 people are estimated to have the disease in the USA (Centre for Disease Control). Due to a genetic mutation in the gene responsible for the production of haemoglobin (MayoClinic, 2014) the red blood cells, which are usually a biconcave disk in shape, become sickle (bent) shaped (Figure 1) and the haemoglobin that the red blood cells contain is defective. Haemoglobin is a protein that carries oxygen (which has bind to the haemoglobin) around the body from the lungs after gas exchange. Having defective haemoglobin, as is the case with sickle cell anaemia, means
Not only this disrupts oxygen from delivered, but the lack of oxygen also results in pain or crises for most. For children the pain scale can be from zero to very little pain, but for adults the pain may be severe. Doctors will often recommend the person to drink large amounts of liquid and take medications for instance ibuprofen. People with this disease are usually very tired and have a decrease in red blood cells. A normal red blood cell lives up to 120 days and automatically kills itself. A sickle cell lives up to 14 days so the body cannot necessarily keep up because the cells are rapidly
Sickle cell disease is a blood disorder in which red blood cells take on an abnormal shape. Sickle cell anemia is when the red blood cells hemolyze, or die. Sickle cell disease is inherited from generation to generation and is the most common in inherited blood disorders. An estimated 70,000-100,000 people in America are currently suffering from this disease, most of which are African Americans. One is diagnosed with sickle cell disease in early childhood generally around four months old when the signs and symptoms are presented. Because of its huge impact, the United States requires all newborns to be tested for this disease. [1] Sickle cell disease is known to affect, “approximately 1 in every 400-500 African American
To conclude, sickle cell anemia is a disease that causes harm. It is not a disease that can be transmitted from one to another but only mother and father to child at conception. Sickle cell anemia has several symptoms such as fatigue, hand-foot syndrome, and even severe episodes of pain. There are many treatments for sickle cell anemia but so far there is no cure. A routine screening in the United States help newborns to be identified if they have sickle cell
By early adulthood, growth catches up with their normal height, and weight remains below average. Children with sickle cell disease have elevated risk of having a stroke that is one of the most concerning of sickle cell disease. Approximately 11% of individuals with sickle cell disease will have a stroke by the age of 20. Magnetic resonance imaging studies have found that 17% of children with sickle cell disease will have a previous stroke or stroke-like events called transient ischemic events. Stroke in sickle cell disease is usually caused by blockage of a blood vessel but about one fourth of the time may be caused by hemorrhage or rupture of a blood vessel.
Sickle cell anemia mainly affects people with African, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, and Indian ancestry. A person with sickle cell anemia inherits two sickle cell genes, one from each parent. It cause the red blood cells to change and become crescent shaped. Normal red blood cells are disk shaped and move easy through the blood vessels. The primary problem is hemoglobin, it is a protein molecule in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body’s tissues and returns carbon dioxide from the tissues to the lungs. In sickle cell anemia, the hemoglobin is flawed. The cells become sickle shaped and can’t move as easily through blood vessels. Sickle cell anemia has one main cause, in order for sickle cell anemia to happen, a sickle
This disease can cause severe pain and fevers, anemia, circulatory problems, strokes, and even “sudden death.” The sickle cells are able to get caught in the capillaries and disturbs the circulatory system (Eckman 447). When a person has abnormal swelling in their feet and hands, this could be caused by a buildup of “sickle-shaped red blood cells blocking blood flow to the feet and hands.” When sickle cells damage an organ, this can make a patient more “vulnerable” to infections (Mayo Clinic Staff). For example, when red blood cells “get stuck in the spleen,” this causes a splenic sequestration crisis. When this occurs, most of the blood cells are sent to the spleen which leads to less red blood cells being able to circulate in the blood stream. Symptoms of a splenic sequestration crisis include, “shortness of breath” and “having pale
The deformity caused by sickle cell anemia results in a decreased oxygen carrying capacity by the cell, and that leads to a variety of related issues. Additionally, the lifespans of sickle cells are shorter than the lifespans of regular red blood cells, because sickle cells are brittle and break apart easily. On the macroscopic level, symptoms for sickle cell anemia vary for age. A common symptom for infants is swelling in the hands and feet, often referred to as hand-foot syndrome. The swelling is a result of blood flow back to the heart being blocked by clusters of sickle cells. Perhaps the most common and widespread symptom is chronic pain. The pain occurs because the sickle cells obstruct the flow of blood to miniscule blood vessels leading to the chest, abdomen, and joints. These episodes of pain, called crises, vary from individual to individual. Some individuals experience only one or two crises in a year, and others suffer from dozens. The crises also vary in intensity and duration. While less common than crises, sickle cell anemia also leaves many crippled with infections because the liver, an organ that helps combat infections, can become damaged or destroyed by sickle cell anemia. Other, less common, symptoms and side effects of sickle cell anemia include vision problems, jaundiced eyes,
Sickle cell trait is the heterozygous state of the sickle cell gene, also called sickle hemoglobin (HbS) (DynaMed, 2015). The sickle hemoglobin (HbS) is an abnormal hemoglobin resulted from an atypical mutation of a normal hemoglobin. Heterozygous individuals are carriers of the sickle cell trait, and they are usually asymptomatic (DynaMed, 2015). There are no interventions or referral indicated for infants. The risk factors for sickle cell gene include ancestry from Africa, Caribbean, Central and South America, India, Mediterranean, and the Middle East (DynaMed, 2015). Although Sickle cell trait is a benign condition, studies have found that under extreme conditions such as severe
Those who are born with the disorder inherit two genes for sickle hemoglobin, one from each parent. People who inherit a sickle hemoglobin gene from one parent and a normal gene from the other parent have a condition called sickle cell trait. Those with sickle cell trait are effectively carriers of the disorder- their children will be born with sickle cell anemia only if their partners have the trait as well. Sickle cell anemia has no widely available cure. However, treatments can help relieve symptoms and treat complications. A blood and bone marrow transplant can offer relief to certain patients. Blood transfusions are more readily available then marrow transplants and are used more frequently. Severe sickle cell anemia can be treated with a medication called hydroxyurea, which prompts the body to make fetal hemoglobin. Currently, there are no long term disadvantages of the drug, though it sometimes decreases white blood cell counts, leaving patients more sucesceptable to infection.
Sickle Cell Anemia or Sickle Cell Disease is an inherited blood ailment. Those suffering from Sickle Cell Disease have abnormal S/ sickle hemoglobin in the red blood cells. Hemoglobin is the protein in the blood that aids in carrying oxygen throughout the body. The ailment takes its appellation from the shape of the red blood cells of a person affected by Sickle Cell Disease, which have the shape of a sickle. They are stiff and adhesive rather than a disk like normal cells. The misshapen cells tend to get trapped in the small blood vessels hindering the movement of blood and oxygen to the many areas of one’s body. This causes pain and organ damage. Hemoglobin molecules are comprised of an alpha and a beta. People with Sickle Cell Disease have an aberration occurring on a gene in their chromosomes 11 and 16. ("Sickle Cell Disease.") Chromosome 11 is the “gene that codes for the beta subunit of the hemoglobin protein” ("Sickle Cell Disease.") This causes the particles in the hemoglobin not to manifest accurately.
First of all what is sickle anemia? It’s a disorder that is affects your blood cells and hemoglobin which is a molecule that is in your red blood cells that delivers oxygen to the cells and throughout your entire body. When people realise that they have sickle cell is when they have the following symptoms, chest pain problems and difficulty breathing, strokes, joint pain, arthritis and severe infections. People are diagnosed with sickle anemia at a very young age people get from their parents if both parents have a genetic gene of sickle then, more likely their offspring will have the disease it 's a very popular and common disease it affects millions of people worldwide the most common type of people who do get sickle cell anemia more than any other is African Americans because the disease is mostly in Africa and the Mediterranean countries such as Greece, Turkey, and Italy. In the United States the diseases affects more than, 70,000 to 80,000 american people and 1 and 500 African Americans and 1 in 1,000 to 1,400 Hispanic Americans have the disease already inside of their body what type of gene is making them have sickle cell that would the HBB gene is what causes sickle cell anemia. Why is it called sickle cell anemia because the hemoglobin is shape like a ‘S’ shape or it can be called a sickle instead of a normal round red cell some scientists think that the disease might be with the deadly disease of malaria because since it is common in Africa when the people