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-BLOOD PROBLEM PAGE-

1. Choose one of the problems described below.
2. Prepare your solution as a word document.
3. Send it to your professor as an e-mail attachment. You will receive an e-mail response.

Problem #1:A child is rushed to an emergency room due to difficulty breathing and extreme weakness brought about by strenuous exercise. The parents indicate that the child has sickle-cell anemia, oxygen is administered and the crisis passes. Utilize the Internet or other sources to answer the following questions:

1. What is anemia?
2. In this condition, what happens to red blood cells to make them assume a sickle shape?
3. Why does "sickling" cause anemia?
4. What tissue of the body is producing abnormal cells?
5. What molecule within the cells is altered from its normal shape, causing the cells to sickle?
6. What is the specific molecular alteration that is the basis for this condition?
7. How is this condition inherited? What is the difference between sickle cell disease and sickle cell trait.

Problem #2: A 68-year old manenters an emergency room complaining of chest pain. He is admitted to the hospital and monitored over the next several days undergoing tests including blood tests. Utilize the Internet or other sources to answer the following questions:

1. What enzymes in the blood are measured when an individual is suspected of having had a heart attack (myocardial infarction, MI)?
2. Are these enzymes also found in the blood of healthy people? If so, at what concentrations (baseline values)?
3. How do these enzyme concentrations change during and after a heart attack? Give at least one example of how the values change.
4. Why do these enzyme levels change? How long will it take for them to return to baseline values?
5. What other human disease conditions can cause similar blood enzyme levels changes and must be distinguished from those caused by a heart attack?
6. What is an isozyme and how is it relevant to this situation?

 

E-mail your Professor at first name.last name@kbcc.cuny.edu