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Sickle Cell Anemia Learning Center
Symptoms could include:
- Anemia
- Fatigue
- Jaundice
- Abdominal Pain
- Tired
- Bone Pain
- Dark Urine
- Growth retardation
- Yellow Skin
- Fast Heart Rate
- Abdominal Swelling
- Yellow Eyes
- Swollen Feet
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Swollen Hands
- Heart Rate Altered
- Visual Disturbance
- Pain
- Fever
- Chest Pain
- Shortness of Breath
- General Weakness
- Leg Ulcers
- Itching
- Joint Pain
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Delayed Puberty
- Pale Complexion
- Blood In Urine
- Arm Pain
- Abnormal Heart Rhyt...
- Excessive Thirst
- Cold Sweat
- Pale Stools
- Shortness of Breath...
- Feels Hot to Touch
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Almost all patients with sickle cell anemia have painful episodes (crises), which can last from hours to days. These crises can affect the bones of the back, the long bones, and the chest.
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Sickle cell anemia is caused by an error in the gene that signals the body how to make hemoglobin. The defective gene tells the body to make the abnormal hemoglobin HbS instead of the normal HbA, and this results in deformed red blood cells. The e...
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Acute chest syndrome can occur at any age, and is caused by sickle cells blocking the small blood vessels of the lungs. This blockage is complicated by accompanying problems such as infection and pooling of blood in the lungs. Affected persons exp...
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Normal adult hemoglobin transports oxygen from the lungs to tissues throughout the body. Sickle hemoglobin can also transport oxygen. However, once the oxygen is released, sickle hemoglobin tends to polymerize (line-up) into rigid rods that alter ...
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Normal adult hemoglobin transports oxygen from the lungs to tissues throughout the body. Sickle hemoglobin can also transport oxygen. However, once the oxygen is released, sickle hemoglobin tends to polymerize (lineup) into rigid rods that alter t...
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Humans normally make several types of the oxygen-carrying protein hemoglobin. An individual's stage in development determines whether he or she makes primarily embryonic, fetal, or adult hemoglobins. All types of hemoglobin are made of three compo...
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Normal adult hemoglobin transports oxygen from the lungs to tissues throughout the body. Sickle hemoglobin can also transport oxygen. However, once the oxygen is released, sickle hemoglobin tends to polymerize (line-up) into rigid rods that alter ...
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Anemia is a condition in which the body does not have enough healthy red blood cells. Red blood cells provide oxygen to body tissues. Hemoglobin is the oxygen-carrying protein inside red blood cells. It gives red blood cells their red color. Peopl...
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Anemia is a condition characterized by abnormally low levels of healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin.
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Anemia is a blood disorder characterized by abnormally low levels of healthy red blood cells (RBCs) or reduced hemoglobin (Hgb), the iron-bearing protein in red blood cells that delivers oxygen to tissues throughout the body. Reduced blood cell vo...
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Anemia is characterized by an abnormally low number of red blood cells in the circulating blood. It frequently affects patients with cancer. In fact, in many cancer diagnoses such as multiple myeloma and acute leukemia , the presence of anemia may...
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Anemia is a condition characterized by abnormally low levels of healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin (the component of red blood cells that delivers oxygen to tissues throughout the body).
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Anemia is a condition characterized by abnormally low levels of healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin (the component of red blood cells that delivers oxygen to tissues throughout the body).
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Deficiency of red cells, or hemoglobin, in the blood. Anemia is a medical condition in which the quantity of red blood cells falls below an acceptable level. Red blood cells, produced in the bone marrow, contain hemoglobin, the component of blood ...
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Anemia affects more than 30 percent of the world's population, and it is one of the most important worldwide health problems. It has a significant prevalence in both developing and industrialized nations. Causes of anemia include nutritional defic...
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Fatigue is a feeling of weariness, tiredness, or lack of energy.
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Fatigue is physical and/or mental exhaustion that can be triggered by stress , medication, overwork, or mental and physical illness or disease.
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Fatigue may be defined as a subjective state in which one feels tired or exhausted, and in which the capacity for normal work or activity is reduced. There is, however, no commonly accepted definition of fatigue when it is considered in the contex...
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Fatigue is physical and/or mental exhaustion that can be triggered by stress , medication, overwork, or mental and physical illness or disease.
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Fatigue may be defined as a subjective state in which one feels tired or exhausted, and in which the capacity for normal work or activity is reduced. There is, however, no commonly accepted definition of fatigue when it is considered in the contex...
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Fatigue is a feeling of exhaustion or loss of strength. The duration of fatigue for a patient with cancer has been found to last from one to two times the length of time between diagnosis and completion of treatment, so it is common for fatigue to...
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Jaundice is a yellow color in the skin, the mucous membranes, or the eyes. The yellow pigment is from bilirubin, a byproduct of old red blood cells.
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Jaundice is a condition in which the patient has a yellow hue because of high blood levels of bilirubin, a breakdown product of hemoglobin that is potentially toxic. The yellow discoloration is most noticeable in the skin, the sclera (whites of th...
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Jaundice is a condition in which a person's skin and the whites of the eyes are discolored yellow due to an increased level of bile pigments in the blood resulting from liver disease. Jaundice is sometimes called icterus , from a Greek word for "t...
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Refers to the yellowing of skin, sclera (white of eyes), mucous membranes, and of body fluids such as urine and blood plasma. Jaundice is caused by excess bilirubin in the blood stream. The skin, sclera (whites of the eyes), mucous membranes, urin...
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Abdominal pain is pain that you feel anywhere between your chest and groin. This is often referred to as the stomach region or belly.
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Being tired is the familiar aftermath of physical exertion, prolonged labor or lack of sleep. When does being tired become a symptom of a condition? Fatigue, malaise, lassitude, exhaustion are all subtle variations of the same subjective feelings of not having enough energy to meet the demands of one's life.
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Bone pain represents one of the most debilitating side effects of the metastases of high-incidence cancers such as breast, prostate, lung, and multiple myeloma (myelomatosis). Severe bone pain is frequent, reported by greater than 65% of patients ...
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Urine is produced in the kidneys, which are important organs for the health of our body. When we take fluid in, it passes from our digestive system into our circulatory system and is filtered through the kidneys.
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Urine of an abnormal color appears different from the usual straw-yellow color. Abnormally-colored urine may be cloudy, dark, or blood-tinged. See also: Urine, bloody or dark
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Delayed growth is poor or abnormally slow height or weight gains in a child younger than age 5. See also: Short stature
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The heart rate, usually measured by checking the arterial pulse or sounds counting the times of the heart beat, is considered one of the vital signs. Vital signs – body temperature, pulse, breathing rate, and blood pressure provide information about the state of health of a person and, if abnormal, offer clues to problems.
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A swollen abdomen is when your belly area is bigger than usual. See also: Abdominal girth
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Yellow eyes is a manifestation of jaundice which is caused by excess bilirubin in the blood stream. Bilirubin is a byproduct of red blood cells, normally broken down in the liver when they become a waste products.
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Painless swelling of the feet and ankles is a common problem, particularly among older people. Abnormal buildup of fluid in the ankles, feet, and legs is called peripheral edema.
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The heart rate, usually measured by checking the arterial pulse or sounds counting the times of the heart beat, is considered one of the vital signs. Vital signs – body temperature, pulse, breathing rate, and blood pressure provide information about the state of health of a person and, if abnormal,offer clues to problems.
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Visual disturbances are abnormalities of sight. Visual disturbances associated with neurological disorders often include double vision (diplopia), moving or blurred vision due to nystagmus (involuntary rapid movements of the eyes), reduced visual ...
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Pain is a universal human experience. The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage...
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Pain, medically termed "nociception," is a response to noxious stimuli that is conveyed to the brain by sensory neurons . The discomfort signals actual or impending injury to the body. However, pain is more than a sensation, or the physical awaren...
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Pain is an unpleasant feeling that is conveyed to the brain by sensory neurons. The discomfort signals actual or potential injury to the body. However, pain is more than a sensation, or the physical awareness of pain; it also includes perception, ...
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Pain is an unpleasant feeling that is conveyed to the brain by sensory neurons. The discomfort signals actual or potential injury to the body. However, pain is more than a sensation, or the physical awareness of pain; it also includes perception, ...
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Pain is an unpleasant feeling that is conveyed to the brain by nerves in the body.
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Fever is the temporary increase in the body's temperature, in response to some disease or illness. A child has a fever when their temperature is at or above one of these levels: 100.4 F (38 C) measured in the bottom (rectally; 99.5 F(37.5 C) measu...
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A fever is any body temperature elevation over 100.4°F (38°C).
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Normal body temperature varies somewhat from one individual to another but displays a general range and pattern around the "normal" temperature of 98.6°F. Early morning body temperature may be as low as 97°F, and as high as 99.3°F in the afternoon...
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Fever is defined as an abnormally high body temperature or a regulated rise to a new set point of body temperature. While a body temperature above 100°F(37.8°C) is considered to be a fever by some clinicians, a significant fever is usually defined...
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An elevated body temperature. While the standard for normal body temperature is 98.6°F (37°C), normal body temperatures actually fluctuate within a range of one to two degrees, making it impossible to formulate a precise definition of fever based ...
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A fever is any body temperature elevation over 100°F (37.8°C).
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Hyperthermia involves raising the body's core temperature as a means of eradicating tumors. The treatment simulates fever . Some therapies actually bring on fever through the introduction of fever-causing organisms, while others raise body tempera...
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Hyperthermia is the use of therapeutic heat to treat various cancers on and inside the body.
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Chest pain is discomfort or pain that you feel anywhere along the front of your body between your neck and upper abdomen.
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Breathing difficulty involves a sensation of difficult or uncomfortable breathing or a feeling of not getting enough air. See also: Difficulty breathing - first aid
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Shortness of breath, or dyspnea, is a feeling of difficult or labored breathing that is out of proportion to the patient's level of physical activity. It is a symptom of a variety of different diseases or disorders and may be either acute or chronic.
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Weakness is a reduction in the strength of one or more muscles.
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Stasis dermatitis is a skin condition due to the buildup of fluid (swelling) under the skin.
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Itching is a tingling or irritation of the skin that makes you want to scratch the affected area.
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Itching is an intense, distracting irritation or tickling sensation that may be felt all over the skin's surface or confined to just one area. The medical term for itching is pruritus.
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Itching is an intense, distracting irritation or tickling sensation that may be felt all over the skin's surface or confined to just one area. The medical term for itching is pruritus.
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Itching, also called pruritus, is an unpleasant sensation of the skin that causes a person to scratch or rub the area to find relief. Itching can be confined to one spot (localized) or over the whole body (generalized). Severe scratching can injur...
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Itching is an intense, distracting irritation or tickling sensation that may be felt all over the skin's surface, or confined to just one area. The medical term for itching is "pruritus."
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Joint pain can affect one or more joints. See also: Arthritis (inflammation of joints; Bursitis; Muscle pain.
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Paleness is an abnormal loss of color from normal skin or mucous membranes.
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Blood in your urine, or hematuria, can be classified as microscopic or gross. Microscopic hematuria is when there is very little blood in the urine and it can only be seen with a microscope; Gross hematuria is when there is enough blood in the uri...
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Pain is an unpleasant sensation triggered in the nervous system that can range from mild discomfort to unbearable agony. Pain receptors located throughout the body send electrical impulses via the spinal cord to the brain.
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An arrhythmia is a disorder of the heart rate (pulse) or heart rhythm, such as beating too fast (tachycardia), too slow (bradycardia), or irregularly.
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An arrhythmia is an abnormality in the heart's rhythm, or heartbeat pattern. The heartbeat can be too slow, too fast, have extra beats, skip a beat, or otherwise beat irregularly.
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Excessive thirst is an abnormal feeling of always needing to drink fluids.
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Clammy skin is cool, moist, and usually pale.
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Stools that are pale, or clay- or putty-colored may result from problems in the biliary system (the drainage system of the gallbladder, liver, and pancreas.
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Many people experience feel short of breath during strenuous activity if they are not accustomed to exercise. If you have a sudden onset of difficulty breathing doing a normal routine, it may be a medical emergency.
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Sometimes a person feels hot to touch due to illness or environmental situation that causes elevated core temperature. A compounding factor can be dehydration (lack of fluids.
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