Sickle Cell Anemia Paper

People with sickle cell anemia also may have bouts of pain in the chest, stomach, arms, legs, or other parts of the body. This is caused by sickle cells blocking blood flow through the blood vessels. Feeling tired and having trouble fighting

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 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.

There are precautions, though, that should be taken in order to prevent this disease. For example, in Saudi Arabia, they have a Saudi Premarital Screening Program. “In 2004, the Saudi Ministry of Health implemented a mandatory premarital screening program in order to decrease the incidence of these genetic disorders in future generations” (Fakhoury). A blood test will be done to screen for sickle cell trait or sickle cell disease.

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

The Sickle Cell gene needs to be inhered from both of the parents; otherwise the individual will only carry the Sickle Cell trait. If the sickle cell trait is carried by an individual they can be asymptomatic. This individual can, however, transfer the gene abnormality to any offspring that they have. Sickle Cell Anemia is the most common form of sickle cell disease. It is also the most severe form of the disease. One variation of sickle cell anemia is hemoglobin SC disease and is one of the more common variations. Many times it manifests with a lesser degree of hemolytic anemia (1).

Screening test, newborn screening and prenatal screening. The doctors can give a blood test to check for Hemoglobin S. Hemoglobin S is the defective form of hemoglobin that underlies sickle cell anemia. In order for a diagnosis to be confirmed they take a sample of blood and examine it under a microscope to check for sickle cells. If you have the disease they do a blood test for anemia.

Sickle cell anemia is an inherited disease causing red blood cells to malfunction. It is a disorder the affects hemoglobin the protein found in red blood cells. People with this disease genetically inherit this untypical hemoglobin. This means that it cannot be transmitted from one person to another like the flu virus. These people have what its called hemoglobin (s). What this does is that instead of the red blood cell being circle-shaped it would appear to be a half moon shaped cell. It is necessary for the cells to be round so that they would be able to pass though small and large blood vessels.

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.

One of the ways to possibly rid one of sickle-cell anemia would be to do a stem cell transplant. They would use chemotherapy to get rid of the stem cells creating sickle-cell and replace it with new, healthy blood cells.

with the sickle-cell disease need to check with their doctor a few times a year. Children with a

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “Sickle cell Trait is people who inherit one sickle cell gene and one normal gene have sickle cell trait (SCT). People with SCT usually do not have any of the symptoms of sickle cell disease (SCD), but they can pass the trait on to their children.” (sickle cell trait)

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.

Roughly two billion- over 30%- of the world’s population is anemic. Anemia is a serious condition which is marked by a deficiency of healthy red blood cells. Many people develop anemia because of a lack of iron in the blood or during menstruation. However, anemia can be caused by decreased or faulty blood cells. One of the most widely known classifications of anemia is sickle cell anemia, a hereditary disorder in which the body manufactures sickle (crescent) shaped red blood cells. Normal red blood cells are disc-shaped and can move easily through blood vessels, while sickle cells are oblong, curved, and stiff. They tend to block blood flow in the blood vessels of the limbs and organs, which can cause pain and organ damage. It can raise the

Sickle Cell Disease is an autosomal recessive genetic disease that occurs due to a mutation in the β-globin gene of hemoglobin. Autosomal meaning that it is not linked to a sex chromosome, so either parent can pass on the gene to their child. This mutation is a result of a single substitution of amino acids, Glutamic for Valine at position 6 of a β globin chain. The presence of this mutation causes