Sickle And Cell Anaemi What Is The Disorder - 2470 Words

What is the disorder? Sickle Cell Anaemia. What is sickle cell anemia? Sickle cell anaemia (sickle cell disease) is a disorder of the blood caused by an inherited abnormal hemoglobin (the iron-rich protein that carries oxygen from your lungs to the rest of the body). Hemoglobin is the main substance of the red blood cell. It helps red blood cells carry oxygen from the air in our lungs and releases the oxygen to all parts of the body. From this, normal red blood cells are flexible and round, moving easily through blood vessels. But when abnormal sickle haemoglobin releases the oxygen, the oxygen sticks together and forms long rods, which damage and change the red blood cell into rigid, sticky, sickle like or crescent moon shapes. The sickle-shaped red blood cells break apart easily, having a shorter lifespan of only 10-20 days instead of the normal 120 days and aren t replaced as quickly as normal blood cells. This leads to a shortage of red blood cells, known as anaemia. These irregularly shaped blood cells, unable to move around as easily, clump together get stuck in small blood vessels, blocking blood flow and the transportation of oxygen to parts of the body. Tissue and organs that do not receive a normal amount of blood flow eventually becomes damaged resulting in episodes of severe pain called a sickle cell crisis or a vaso-occlusive crisis. A sickle cell crisis or a vaso-occlusive crisis can last from a few minutes to several months, although on average most last