Andrew

Andrew DEFINITION- This disease is a blood disorder that occur with the red blood cells and are abnormal with a rigid sickle shape. The reason for the sickling of the red blood cells is because there is a mutation hemoglobin gene. Hemoglobin- is the iron containing oxygen that transports metalloprotein in red blood cells. Hemoglobin carries oxygen from the organs to the rest of the body which is found in the blood.
 * //__ SICKLE CELL ANEMIA __//**

Sickle red blood cells will get stuck in the capillaries.

This is a autosomal disorder, so people with sickle cell have 47 chromosomes than having the normal 46. The only way for you to get it is if both parents pass down a defective gene. Chromosome 11 is affected during sickle cell anemia.

Symptoms: you don’t start to see symptoms until after 4 months of age. Some are bone pain, breathlessness, fatigue, fever, ulcers, rapid heart beat, and chest pain.

Stats: estimated that 70,000 – 100,000 Americans have sickle cell. Estimated that 2 million Americans are sickle cell trait carriers. 1 in 12 African Americans have the sickle cell trait. African Americans are more susceptible to getting sickle cell than other people.

Life expectancy: people who have had sickle cell anemia have died from the age of 20 to 40 years old. A main cause it organ failure. But with the research being done with sickle cell anemia some people have started to live to their 50s and higher. Life expectancy is age 42 for men and 48 for women.



[] [] [] [] The Merck Manual, fifteenth edition;editor Robert Berkow;published by Merck & Co., Inc. 1987