What is Sickle Cell Anemia? Signs, Symptoms, & Treatment [2019]

What do Tiki Barber, Larenz Tate, and T-Boz have in common? Sickle cell anemia? What is sickle cell anemia? Today we're going to discuss the symptoms, the diagnosis, and the treatment.

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This video is intended to be informational only. It is not a medical consultation, nor is it personalized medical advice. For medical advice, please consult your physician.

What is sickle cell anemia disease? Well, sickle cell anemia, also known as sickle cell disease, is an inherited disorder that affects the red blood cells. Your red blood cells are normally shaped like round donuts.
They are very pliable, very bending and they are able to make it through blood vessels very easily in order to carry oxygen to your body's tissues and your body's organs. In patients with sickle cell anemia, instead of having those nice round blood vessels, their blood vessels are shaped like crescents or like sickles. They are not able to carry oxygen adequately to tissues.
And because of their odd shape, they don't always fit nicely and easily through blood vessels, and they often get stuck in blood vessels and capillaries. When they get stuck in these blood vessels and capillaries, it's like causing a traffic jam to your circulatory system. So, in patients who are having sickle cell crises, they are not able to oxygenate their tissues well, and they can have very severe pain in these areas, and they can also have multiple other medical problems.
What causes sickle cell anemia? Sickle cell anemia is an inherited disorder. It is genetic. So, if you have two parents who each carry the sickle cell trait, if each parent passes one sickle cell gene to a child, that child has sickle cell anemia. If one parent passes a sickle cell gene to the child while the other parent passes a normal hemoglobin gene to the child, then that child has sickle cell trait. The child will not actually have sickle cell disease, but the child is now a carrier and can pass the sickle cell gene down to his or her child.
What are the signs and symptoms of sickle cell anemia? Patients with sickle cell anemia can present as babies, just a few months old. Babies with sickle cell anemia often present with painful, red, swollen hands and feet. And children with sickle cell often have delayed puberty and delayed growth. They often look much younger than their actual age. Other signs and symptoms of sickle cell disease include severe anemia, difficulty breathing, chest pain, acute chest syndrome, poor oxygenation.
Sickle cell patients frequently get severe debilitating bone pain. They can get myocardial infarctions or heart attacks, strokes, they can get kidney infarctions, splenic infarctions. They can be prone to more infections than a typical patient. Patients with sickle cell can get severe hip pain, avascular necrosis. They can also get venous thrombosis or DVT.
Men with sickle cell anemia can get something called priapism, which is an unwanted, often painful erection. In the absence of sexual desire, it can last for hours and it can lead to permanent damage if not treated properly. Priapism is a medical emergency.
Who gets sickle cell anemia? In the United States, sickle cell anemia is most prevalent among African Americans and people of African descent. Worldwide, sickle cell anemia is prevalent in regions such as Sub Saharan Africa, the Mediterranean, especially in Greece, in certain parts of India and in the Caribbean. It is believed that the sickle cell gene is actually protective against malaria, which is an infection that can be prevalent in these regions.

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