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Acute Chest Syndrome - a pattern of chest or back pain, cough and difficulty breathing that may signal the start of a sickle cell crisis in the chest; a pneumonia.
Anemia - low red blood cell count.
Aplastic Crisis - bone marrow temporarily stops making red blood cells.
Aseptic Necrosis - gradual breakdown or destruction of bones usually involving the hips, knees or elbow joints.
Bilirubin - yellow substance which comes from the breakdown of red cells.
Bone marrow - the place inside your bones where blood cells are made.
Carriers - persons who carry a gene for a disease but do not have the disease.
Chemotherapy - medicines that are used to fight cancer.
Chronic transfusions - a blood transfusion that is given about once each month to hopefully prevent further complications from sickle cell disease.
Crisis - an emergency related to sickle cell disease.
Dehydration - loss of body fluids from sweating and urination.
Diarrhea - frequent and watery bowel movement.
Genes -message carriers which are passed on to children through the mother's egg and the father's sperm. Genes carry the messages for things like eye color, hair color, blood type, and the kind of hemoglobin a person will have.
Genetic Centers - Genetic specialists can arrange for genetic tests and can answer questions on how genetic conditions may be passed in families.
Geneticist - a doctor who specializes in hereditary conditions.
Hematologist - doctor who specializes in blood disorders.
Hematuria - blood in the urine.
Hemoglobin - part of blood that carries and delivers oxygen to all parts of the body.
Hemoglobin SC Disease - a variant of sickle cell disease.
Hemoglobinopathy - abnormal hemoglobin.
Inherited - passed on from the father and mother to their child.
Jaundice - yellow pigment (color) to eyes and skin.
Meningitis - brain infection.
Osteomyelitis - bone infection.
Platelets - part of the blood that helps make blood clot.
Pneumonia - lung infection.
Priapism - prolonged, unexpected painful erections.
Sepsis - serious blood infection.
Sickle beta-thalassemia - a variant of sickle cell disease.
Sickle Cells - red blood cells that look sickle-shaped ( )) under a microscope. This shape can cause the cells to block the blood vessels and limit the amount of oxygen to the body.
Sickle Cell Anemia (SS) - most common sickling disease in the United States.
Sickle Cell Crisis - an emergency related to sickle cell disease.
Sickle Cell Trait - a normal hemoglobin gene is inherited from one parent and a sickle hemoglobin gene from the other.
Sickling Diseases - sickle cell anemia (SS), sickle-C (SC),and sickle beta-thalassemia (S-B- thalassemia).
Spleen - an organ on the left side of the belly. It acts as a filter for blood.
Splenic Sequestration - spleen overfills with blood.
Stroke - clogging of blood vessels to the brain.
Thalassemia major - an inherited disease with an abnormal hemoglobin that requires lifelong transfusions but does not put a child at risk for infection or crisis.
Thalassemia minor (trait) - an abnormal type of hemoglobin that is sometimes inherited along with sickle hemoglobin to produce sickle- beta thalassemia. Having the trait by itself, is not harmful.
Urination - passing water or peeing.
Vessels - the tubes that blood flows through such as veins, arteries, and capillaries. |
