What comes to your mind when you hear “sickle cell disease”? The one thing that comes to my mind when I hear sickle cell disease is that it’s a type of disease where the cells in the human body are sick, but that’s sort of a way to put it. Sickle cell disease is a disease in which a group of disorders cause red blood cells to become misshaped and broken down which may cause pain.
According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine it states that sickle cell disease is a group of disorders that affects hemoglobin, the molecule in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to cells throughout the body. People with this disorder have atypical hemoglobin molecules called hemoglobin S, which can distort red blood cells into a sickle, or crescent, shape.
…show more content…
The rapid breakdown of red blood cells may also cause yellowing of the eyes and skin, which are signs of jaundice. Jaundice is also a disorder doctors pay close attention to after a baby is born. Then you have the painful episodes that can occur when sickled red blood cells, which are stiff and inflexible, get stuck in small blood vessels. These episodes deprive tissues and organs of oxygen-rich blood and can lead to organ damage, especially in the lungs, kidneys, spleen, and brain. A particularly serious complication of sickle cell disease is high blood pressure in the blood vessels that supply the lungs. Pulmonary hypertension occurs in about one-third of adults with sickle cell disease and can lead to heart failure. (Ashley-Koch A, Yang Q, Olney RS)
Sickle cell disease is most common in Africans and African-Americans. It is also found in other ethnic and racial groups, including people from South and Central America, the Caribbean, Mediterranean countries, and India
Patients with sickle cell disease may develop severe pain in the chest, back, arms, legs, and abdomen. Pain can occur anywhere in the body. Sickle red blood cells in the lungs can cause severe illness with chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. Sickle cell disease can also cause permanent damage to the brain, heart, kidneys, liver, spleen, and bones. The severity and symptoms vary greatly from person to person,
…show more content…
Even though it’s not easy having the disease, but those who suffer from it are some true warriors, because as myself I don’t think I could even bare the pain, and I wish those who have the disease could be cure, because nobody should suffer with the painful disease.
Hydroxyurea is the only FDA-approved medication that prevents painful episodes in sickle cell disease. Studies of patients with sickle cell disease show that the regular use of hydroxyurea decreases the frequency and severity of sickle cell crises and reduces the number of blood transfusions and hospitalizations.
Stem cell transplant is the only curative treatment for sickle cell disease. More than 200 patients with sickle cell disease have undergone stem cell transplants from a matched sibling donor. Stem cell transplant has a 5%-10% risk of death, but patients with successful transplants were completely cured of sickle cell disease, with no further episodes of pain.
Stem cell transplant is performed in young patients with severe sickle cell disease who have a matched sibling donor. Stem cell transplant using umbilical cord blood from a related donor has also been curative in a small number of
Sickle cell disease is a group of disorders that affects the blood, specifically, a molecule called hemoglobin in red blood cells (“sickle cell disease”, 2016). Hemoglobin is a molecule that facilitates the delivery of oxygen throughout the body (“sickle cell disease”, 2016). A mutant form of the hemoglobin molecule causes red blood cells to become crescent shaped or “sickled shaped” (Lonergan et. al. 2001). This distorted shape of red blood cells causes rigidity of the blood cells and vaso-occulusion (or the blood vessels to become clogged) (Rees et.al., 2010). This often leads to a low number of red blood cells (anemia), repeated infections and episodes of pain that are periodic (“Sickle cell disease”, 2016). Although sickle cell disease
Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) (also known as Sickle Cell Disorder or Sickle Cell Anemia) is an inherited blood disorder where the red blood cells have abnormal sickle-shaped hemoglobin S (HbS) called sickle haemoglobin (National Heart Lungs and Blood Institute (NHLBI), 2015). The disease, according to medical sciences, is inherited from both parents as part of their genetic makeup and is usually caused by some abnormalities in haemoglobin which is a protein in red blood cells that conveys oxygen through the body. Whereas normal red blood cells are round, in people with sickle cell anemia, a defective substance in red blood cells changes the shape of the cells. The normal haemoglobin called haemoglobin A (HbA) is replaced by HbS which later becomes
The name of this patient is Davon; he is a five-year-old African-American male whom just moved from Chicago. The patient was visiting his pediatrician for a physical to enter kindergarten. The patient mother gave her history about confirming that she has the sickle cell trait and would like to know if her son is also a carrier for sickle cell. ("Sickle Cell Disease", 2015) “Sickle cell trait inherited from both hemoglobin A and S, in the red blood cells”. Those with this disease are still capable of having a healthy life. For instance, if one parent has sickle cell trait, and the other parent does not will only lead to the child having sickle cell trait or nothing. If both parents have the trait, then the child will genetically develop sickle cell disease inside the mother’s womb. Sickle cell trait is a transmitted disease that travels through the red blood cells. The symptoms of sickle cell trait is that when the skin gets pale, always cold, or even tired then that is a sign of having this disease. The patient cannot prevent this disease, due to this is something that is passed on from the womb and birth. Daily doses of penicillin can control the infection; on the other hand, it is not preventable. The only way to make sure that it does not get worse is the person must eat foods with high iron and even
Sickle cell disease is autosomal recessive; that is, both parents must have at least one copy of the gene before there is a risk of producing children with the disease (homozygotes). When both parents are carriers, the risk of bearing such a child is 25 percent with each pregnancy. Carriers themselves are almost symptomless and may have no idea of their status unless they are screened.
For decades, biologists have been using stem cells to figure out possible cures for different diseases and even prevent them. Stem cells are cells that can become useable in certain tissues in the body (according to an infant), or tissue cells that are already found in blood, bones, the brain, and skin (in adults or children). Stem cells are being used for patients with lymphoma (begins in the immune system), leukemia (cancer of white blood cells), and other types of blood disorders.
The first funding for sickle cell disease began thirty years ago the federal legislation dealing with sickle cell was accepted. This legislation present notab...
Sickle cell disease can be very discomforting and painful for those who suffer with the symptoms that it brings interrupting the lives of patients. Even though sickle cell disease has no cure it can still be managed to where the patient can live a comfortable life.
Sickle Cell is a disease that affects many people in the world today. It is the number one genetic disorder in the United States. Sickle Cell is deficient hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is what functions in providing oxygen to the cells in the body. The sickle shape comes from the atypical hemoglobin s molecules. Hemoglobin molecules are composed of two different parts called the alpha and beta. The beta subunit of the hemoglobin molecule has a mutation in gene, on chromosome 11 which produces the change in the red blood cell shape causing them to die and not reproduce accurately. The change in shape causes the red blood cells to get stuck in the blood vessels and block the effectiveness of oxygen transport causing pain and organ damage to the body. This disease does not have a cure and some common treatments are used to help patients live with the disease. Some treatment options are antibiotics (penicillin) to prevent infections, blood transfusions, folic acid that help produces new blood cells. These are just some of the current treatments for Sickle Cell.
Scientists are also studying gene therapy as a good treatment for sickle cell anemia. One day, doctors may be able to stop the disease by changing or replacing the abnormal gene that causes sickle cell anemia.
Sickle cell anemia is a disease that has to be inherited from both parents. Both parents have sickle cell trait, which means each parent has sickle hemoglobin and normal hemoglobin. So people with the sickle cell trait can pass the sickle cell gene to their children. Most families that come from Africa, South Central, and Central America are more common with sickle cell anemia. According to National Heart, Lung and Blood, it’s estimated that the sickle cell disease has affected 70,000-100,000 people mainly African Americans (National Institute of Health, 2012). Hispanic Americans also are common to having sickle cell anemia. According to National heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, statistics shows sickle cell anemia occurs in about 1 out of every 500 African American births and 1 out of 36,000 Hispanic American births (National Institute of Health, 2012). Signs of sickle cell anemia don’t show until after 4 months of age. Sickle cell anemia begins from ...
There are many signs and symptoms of sickle cell anemia. The sickle cell disease usually shows up after an infant is approximately four months old. Anemia is one sign of sickle cell disease. Red blood cells usually live for 120 days before they need to be replaced by new ones. However, sickle cells die off after ten to twenty days. Another symptom of sickle cell anemia is episodes of pain. Episodes of pain are one of the major symptoms of sickle cell anemia. The pain develops because sickle-shaped red blood cells block the flow through tiny blood vessels to your abdomen, joints, and chest. These episodes of pain that occur periodically are called crises. Some patients diagnosed with sickle cell anemia only experience pain a few times in a year, whereas; others can experience various amounts of crises a year. Sometimes if the pain is severe patients may be hospitalized. The pain can also occur in the bones as well. To continue, hand-foot syndrome is also another symptom of sickle cell anemia. Usually a patient will have swollen hands and feet. The s...
First of all stem cell transplants could lead to life saving cures and operations. Researchers say it has the potential to cure strokes, respiratory disease, diabetes, neurological disorders, spinal cord injuries, some birth defects, some types of cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. Bret Hoekema is a man living with hodgkin's lymphoma (a cancer that attacks cells in the immune system). In 2013 Hoekema had a Stem Cell Transplant and has been cancer free since. In a post on his blog, Hoechemo, Bret wrote to his donor, “you are my hero. You are my perfect match. My ten-out-of-ten. And from now on I want you to imagine what your simple gift has the power to accomplish in my life. I want you to imagine, what I can finally
Sickle Cell Disease is a recessive disease, which means that a person only inherits the disease if both the genes in the genotype are recessive. To explain further, a genotype is a two letter code used to show the genes an organism has for a trait (for example: RR, Rr, or rr). Each letter represents a version of a gene, or an allele. There are two variations of alleles for a trait - a dominant allele and a recessive allele. Capital letters represent dominant alleles and lowercase letters represent recessive alleles. Dominant versions of a gene for a trait will always be present in one’s physical appearance, or phenotype, even if there is only one dominant allele in a person’s genotype. However, there has to be two recessive alleles in a person’s genotype for a person to have the recessive version of the gene
Sickle cell anemia is a genetic disorder in the blood cell that gives it a weird C shape. A genetic
Sickle-cell disease is a blood disorder genetically caused by a point mutation in the β-globin trait . A point mutation defined by “Principles of Life” is “a result from a gain, loss, or substitution of a single nucleotide.” This single change to the gene codes for a polypeptide and not the normally needed protein. Instead of coding for a glutamic acid, it codes for a valine.