Sickle Cell Disease: A Brief Summary

Doctor informed complete studies of a 9-year old child with sickle cell anemia. Her main complaints were cough, vague pains in legs (joints), night sweats, abdominal pain, less hunger, and increasing weakness. In a series of knowing experiments that involved taking venous blood from the arm under different conditions, the doctor showed a connection between oxygen tension and sickling of the red blood cells in vivo. When the oxygen pressure fell below 40-45mm Hg, the sickling was marked increased.

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, also referred to as SCD, is a genetically inherited disease that causes abnormal hemoglobin, called hemoglobin S or sickle hemoglobin, in red blood cells. This disease currently affects about 90,000-100,000 Americans, a majority being African-American. Because SCD is genetically inherited, it is not contagious. It is inherited when both parents of a child carry the sickle cell trait, also called SCT. SCT and SCD are not the same. In SCT, the person is generally healthy and does not endure what one with SCD does, they are simply a “carrier” of the sickle cell trait. SCD cannot be inherited if only one parent is a carrier. If both parents are carriers of the sickle cell trait, the child still only has a 25% chance of being born with sickle cell. They have a 50% chance of being born with a single trait, making them a carrier, and a 25% chance of being born with normal hemoglobin. About 1 in 13 African-American babies are born as a carrier and 1 in 365 are born with the disease.

This paper will discuss Sickle Cell Anemia. It will describe what the disease is as well as how its contracted. The paper will go on to on to discuss the symtoms risk and statistics of sickle cell aniema. The paper will end with discussing treatment for the disease.

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

Sickle Cell Disease, also known as SCD, is a group of genetic red blood cell disorders marked by abnormalities in the hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells made up of alpha and beta chains that helps to deliver oxygen throughout the body. Unlike normal red blood cells that have a circular, biconcave shape, sickle red blood cells have hemoglobin S which causes them to become stiff, sticky and shaped like sickles. Usually normal red blood cells would move smoothly through small blood tubes, but with the shape of sickle red blood cells, movement through blood vessels will be difficult and they may stick together causing a clog in the flow of blood, oxygen, and even healthy, normal red blood cells. Oxygen deprivation causes erythrocytes to form this sickle shape. “The sickle cell mutation is caused by a single nucleotide effecting a change in the β-globin gene, resulting in the substitution of valine for glutamic acid as the sixth amino acid of β-globin.”

Sickle Cell disease (SCD) is an inherited blood disorder in which abnormal hemoglobin is produced in red blood cells. The body creates sickle red blood cells, which are crescent shaped instead of the typical round shape. This shape of the sickle cells are stiff, as well as stick and because of this they tend to block blood flow in the blood vessels of the limbs and organs. This blockage will cause pain and organ damage, as well as serious infection. (National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute [NHLBI], 2014.). Sickle Cell Disease is also known as sickle cell anemia and Hemoglobin SS Disease.

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.

World Health Organization (WHO) has declared that hemoglobinopathies are the most widespread inherited disorder in the world (1). The principal hemoglobin disorder, sickle cell disease (SCD), is a recessively inherited disorder (2,3). Patients with both genes for SCD have the most severe form of the disease, sickle cell anemia (SCA). Following population migration, SCA is now seen throughout the world, as demonstrated by the employment of universal screening programs in the United States of America, in the United Kingdom, and in French overseas territories. It is predicted that human immigration will continue to rise with further globalization (4), the implementation of prevention measures, in low- and middle-income countries will be of direct

Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder. The way it affects the human is that it causes red blood cells to become rigid and sticky. Red blood cells are normally round and easily move through blood vessels. However when a person has sickle cell anemia some of his or her red blood cells are sickle shaped, thus the name sickle cell anemia. Along with the sickle shape the red blood cells are rough and jagged and can often at times cause blood clots. Another name for this disorder is HBS disease.

The target audience for this literature review is all who work within the health care facilities and have encounters with Sickle cell patients and as well as policy makers who can implement major changes. Sickle cell Disease is a life-threatening, severe, inherited chronic blood disorder. The healthy red blood cells which are round turn “sickle” shaped or moon-shaped which can cause the cells to break and die prematurely. The abnormal shape of the cells ends up blocking blood vessels which prevents oxygen from circulating around the body resulting in severe, intense pain in the chest, back, limbs, and joints. Aside from the actual physical pain that Sickle Cell patients go though on a regular, there are other things that they have to deal with

The term of Sickle cell disease (SCD) describes a group of inherited red blood cell disorders. “Inherited” means that it is passed by genes from parents to their children.

consequently had more of a prevalence of SCD while they were compared to those who did not undergo a hemodialysis (Derebail et al, 2014). Concluding from this one study that dealt mainly with African-Americans, the results show how prevalent sickle-cell disease can be in black people. The higher rate of the trait can again be linked back to the monetary elements but it may not be limited only be limited to that as family ties are an important genetic factor of this disease.