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Sickle Cell Disorder Research Paper

Sickle cell anemia is a disease passed down through families in which red blood cells form an abnormal sickle or crescent shape. Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body and are normally shaped like a disc. Sickle cell disease refers to a group of inherited red blood cell disorders. It is the most common genetic disease in the U.S. An estimated 70,000-80,000 Americans have sickle cell disease. Normal red blood cells are round like doughnuts, and they move through small blood tubes in the body to deliver oxygen. Sickle red blood cells become hard, sticky and shaped like sickles used to cut wheat. When these hard and pointed red cells go through the small blood tube, they clog the flow and break apart. This can cause pain, damage and a low blood count, or anemia.

What is sickle cell trait?

A person with the sickle cell trait does not have (and will never have) sickle cell disease. However, the presence of the trait may impact his/her children

How do you get sickle cell disease?

Sickle cell disease is not contagious; you cannot "catch" it. You inherit it from your parents. If, for example, one parent has normal hemoglobin ( type AA) and the second parent has abnormal hemoglobin ( type AS, or the sickle cell "trait"), there is a 50% chance that each child will have the sickle cell trait, but they will not have sickle cell disease ( type SS).
The three most common forms of the disease in the United States are: 1. Hemoglobin SS or sickle cell anemia 2. Hemoglobin SC disease 3. Hemoglobin sickle beta-thalassemia (a form of "Cooley's" anemia)
Each of these can cause very painful "crisis" episodes and in severe cases lead to stroke, heart attack and death.

Who gets sickle cell?

Sickle cell disease affects people of many nationalities including Italians, Latin Americans, Greeks, Arabs, and Asiatic

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