Bone Marrow disease
Before understanding what bone marrow diseases are, we have to understand what bone marrow is. As I started to research, I found out that bone marrow is a spongy yellow fatty tissue that is found in the center of certain bones like the hip and the spine. This tissue has stem cells that transform themselves into white and red blood cells, which carry oxygen and remove waste products from organs and tissues. Having healthy stem cells is vital for normal functions like fighting infections and disease and clotting. Bone marrow is sometimes is transplanted to patients with deadly diseases, these diseases can be cancerous or non-cancerous like Leukemia and Sickle cell anemia.
Sickle cell anemia is an inherited chronic disease and a lifelong condition. It is inherited by having two copies of the sickle cell gene, one of each parent. This disease affects millions of people worldwide. It is most common in people from Africa, South and Central America. In the U.S it affects 70,000 people mostly African Americans. It is a serious condition in which red blood cells become sickle shape (that is shape like a “c”). This makes the cells difficult to travel through the blood vessels depriving downstream tissues from oxygen. They are sticky and stiff and they tend to form clumps and get stuck in the blood vessels causing pain, serious infections and organ damage.
Early diagnosis is very important so that children who have the condition can get proper treatment. Screening tests for sickle cell anemia and sickle cell trait are done on newborns in most states. One blood test is to look at how the hemoglobin moves in an electric field. This is called electrophoresis. Another test is the blood count due to that a child with sickle cell usually will reveal anemia. In a child with sickle cell anemia a red blood cell will last about 14 days. A red blood cell will last 4 months in a child with normal hemoglobin. Because the bone marrow cannot make...
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