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Sickle Cell Anemia Essay

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The sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder that affects red blood cells. People with sickle cell have red blood cells that have mostly hemoglobin's, Sometimes these red blood cells become sickle-shaped or crescent shaped and have trouble going through small blood vessels.
When sickle-shaped cells block small blood vessels, less blood can get to that part of the body. Tissue that does not get a normal blood flow eventually becomes damaged.This is what causes the problems of sickle cell disease.As to this day there is really no cure for sickle cell disease.Red blood cells take oxygen from the air we breathe into our lungs to all parts of the body.
Oxygen is carried in red blood cells by a substance called hemoglobin(Hemoglobin – …show more content…

Like most genes, hemoglobin genes are inherited in two sets…one from each parent(Ex. If one parent has Sickle Cell
Anemia and the other is Normal, all of the children will have sickle cell trait. 4 If one parent has sickle cell anemia and the other has sickle cell trait, there is a 50% chance (or 1 out of 2) of having a baby with either sickle cell disease or sickle cell trait with each pregnancy,When both parents have sickle cell trait, they have a 25% chance (1 of 4) of having a baby with sickle cell disease with each pregnancy). HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU
HAVE THIS TRAIT A SIMPLE PAINLESS
BLOOD TEST followed by a laboratory technique called Hemoglobin Electrophoresis will determine the type of hemoglobin you have. When you pass an electric charge through a solution of hemoglobin, distinct hemoglobins move different distances, depending on their composition. This technique differentiates between normal hemoglobin (A), Sickle hemoglobin (S), and other different kinds of hemoglobin (such as C, D, E,).
Medical Problems Sickle cells are destroyed rapidly in the body of people with the disease causing anemia, jaundice and the formation of gallstones. The sickle cells also block the flow of blood through vessels resulting in lung tissue damage (acute chest syndrome), pain episodes
(arms, legs, chest and abdomen), stroke and priapism (painful prolonged erection). It

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