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    Sickle Cell

    Uploaded by

    Dr. Samar Yousef
    sickle cell anemia

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Sickle Cell

    Uploaded by

    Dr. Samar Yousef
    6 views3 pages
    sickle cell anemia

    Original Title

    sickle cell

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    © © All Rights Reserved

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    sickle cell anemia

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as rtf, pdf, or txt
    6 views3 pages

    Sickle Cell

    Uploaded by

    Dr. Samar Yousef
    sickle cell anemia

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as RTF, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as rtf, pdf, or txt
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    Sickle cell disease

    The term sickle cell disease (SCD) describes a


    group of inherited red blood cell disorders. People
    with SCD have abnormal hemoglobin, called
    hemoglobin S or sickle hemoglobin, in their red
    blood cells.Hemoglobin is a protein in red blood cells
    that carries oxygen throughout the body.“Inherited”
    means that the disease is passed by genes from
    parents to their children. SCD is not contagious. A
    person cannot catch it, like a cold or infection, from
    someone else.
    People who have SCD inherit two abnormal
    hemoglobin genes, one from each parent. In all
    forms of SCD, at least one of the two abnormal
    genes causes a person’s body to make hemoglobin
    S. When a person has two hemoglobin S genes,
    Hemoglobin SS, the disease is called sickle cell
    anemia. This is the most common and often most
    severe kind of SCD.
    The red cell sickling and poor oxygen delivery can
    also cause organ damage. Over a lifetime, SCD can
    harm a person’s spleen, brain, eyes, lungs, liver,
    heart, kidneys, penis, joints, bones, or skin. Sickle
    cells can’t change shape easily, so they tend to burst
    apart or hemolyze. Normal red blood cells live about
    90 to 120 days, but sickle cells last only 10 to 20
    days.
    Most children with SCD are pain free between
    painful crises, but adolescents and adults may also
    suffer with chronic ongoing pain.

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