te the common causes of sickling in sickle cell disease: the reduced amount of oxygen carried by the defective hemoglobin (Beers, Berkow and Fletcher, 1997, 749).
Differentiate between the red cell antigens and antibodies in persons with blood groups A, B, AB and O: blood type is determined by antigens (agglutinogens) on the red cells and the antibodies (agglutinins) in the serum (Applegate, 20000, 235).
-a person with type A has type A agglutinogens and anti-B agglutinins;
-a person with type B has type B agglutinogens and anti-A agglutinins;
-a person with type AB has both type A and type B agglutinogens and no agglutinins;
-a person with type O has no agglutinogens and both anti-A and anti-B agglutinins.
Differentiating between the causes and symptoms of transfusion reactions:
-a hemolytic reaction is due to a mismatch and causes destruction of the red cells and general discomfort, anxiety, breathing difficulty, and possible death; a febrile reaction causes a fever to develop;
-an allergic reaction is a hypersensitivity reaction which leads to itchiness, rash, swelling, dizziness, fever and headache (Berkow, Beers and Fletcher, 1997, 741).
State the cause of polycythemia (a disorder of blood cell precursors resulting in an excess of erythrocytes in the circulation) and its manifestations - weakness, fatigue, headache, light-headedness and shortness of breath (Berkow, Beers and Fletcher, 1997, 782). Vision may be disturbed and gums may bleed. Stomach ulcers, kidney stones, and intravenous clotting may occur.
State the cause and effects of hyperbilirubinemia - it is often due to the breakdown of large numbers of red blood cells as in jaundice of the newborn (Berkow, Beers and Fletcher, 1997, 561). Hemolytic disease of the newborn is caused by an Rh incompatibility between the mother (Rh-ve) and fetus (Rh+ve) and causes destruction of erythrocytes in the fetus.
-neutrope...