Sickle Cell Anemia

Sickle Cell Anemia

What is Sickle Cell Anemia?

Symptoms

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Sickle cell anemia is a serious disorder in which the body makes sickle-shaped red blood cells. 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.

What are the possibilities of a child of inheriting an abnormal genes?

When both parents have a normal gene and an abnormal gene, each child has a 25 percent chance of inheriting two normal genes; a 50 percent chance of inheriting one normal gene and one abnormal gene; and a 25 percent chance of inheriting two abnormal genes.

Who is at risk of inheriting sickle cell anemia?

People whose ancestors were from Africa, India, the Middle East, the Mediterranean (Turkey, Italy, Greece), and some Latin American countries are more likely to inherit the gene that can cause sickle cell disease. In the United States, about 2,000 children are born each year with sickle cell disease.

The symptoms of sickle cell anemia are:-Severe pain-Anemia- Caused by the tendency of the sickle-cell blood cells breaking apart easily -Chestpain and difficulty breathing-Stroke -Joint pain, arthritis-Blockage of blood flow in the spleen or liver -Severe infections

When red blood cells carrying mutant hemoglobin are deprived of oxygen, they become "sickle-shaped" instead of the usual round shape . This shape can sometimes interrupt blood flow.

The effects at the DNA level