What Are the Complications of Sickle Cell Trait?

Discussion Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of inherited blood disorders where there are abnormal hemoglobin molecules and the red blood cells take on a characteristic sickled shape instead of a rounded shape. Sickled hemoglobin provides an evolutionary advantage of giving the individual increased protection against severe and cerebral malaria. The sickled shape doesn’t move through the vascular system as well and therefore is more likely to aggregate in small vessels causing an increased risk of vaso-occlusive disease, acute chest syndrome, splenic sequestration, and priapism. There is also an increased risk of bacteremia. SCD is most common in those individuals with ancestry from the malaria belt or those from Africa, India, Saudi Arabia or the Mediterranean area. It is one of the most common hemoglobin mutations worldwide. There are about 200,000 individuals born with SCD yearly. US prevalence is 70-140,000 patients. The sickled shape is usually due to a homozygous inheritance, but a heterozygous inheritance causes sickle cell trait (SCT). SCT provides an evolutionary advantage of giving the individual increased protection against severe and cerebral malaria. SCT affects 300 million people globally. In the US 2.5-3 million have SCT and 7-9% of the African-American population has SCT. SCT is generally an asymptomatic carrier state and most people do not have complications. SCT status is important especially for genetic counseling and all US states and many other c...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news