Causes of Sickling in Children with Hemoglobin S and Multiple Myeloma

Understanding Blood Disorders
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Understanding Blood Disorders
Blood is an essential part of the body. Made up of fluids and solids it is charged with the responsibility of transporting nutrients and oxygen throughout the body. It is also helps get rid of such waste products as carbon dioxide produced by body processes. When it is, therefore, affected by a condition or disease the health of the person in question is endangered. This paper focuses on two types of blood conditions: sickling in children and multiple myeloma. It seeks to explain the events leading up to the appearance of the two conditions.
Causes of Sickling in Children with Hemoglobin S
In children with Hgb S, there is a single amino acid change because of a genetic hemoglobin mutant gene where the one amino acid, glutamic acid, is replaced by the valine amino acid. It is harmless as long as there is proper oxygenation ( McCance & Huether, 2018). When there are stressors like dehydration, decreased PO2, or decreased pH occur, this lead to lead to sickling. A condition known as hypoxemia, lowered levels of PO2 result into the formation of a crescent shape -which is elongated – by the Hb S cells and results from the reaggregation of hemoglobin into long chains. The initial cause of the sickle shape is long chain formation of hemoglobin due to re-aggregation. Eventually, the new shape leads to stiffening of the red blood cells membrane with the effect of loss of capacity to perform RBCs transport responsibilities. This shape causes the red blood cell membranes to become stiff, thus losing some of their capacity for active transport. The sickling condition is further worsened by clogging of the microcirculation of the sickled cells even as oxygen is released to the tissues by hemoglobin. Dehydration in the cells which is caused by higher osmolality leads to sickling. According ...