Cystic Fibrosis Essays -- essays research papers

Cystic Fibrosis is adisorder where the exocrine glands secreteabnormally thick mucus, leading to obstruction ofthe pancreas and chronic infections of the lungs,which usually cause death in childhood or earlyadulthood. Some mildly affected patients maysurvive longer. Doctors give the bounce diagnose the diseaseby testing the patients perspiration because peoplewith Cystic Fibrosis have high tallys of salt intheir perspiration. Those with respiratory infectionsargon treated with antibiotics, with aerosols thatrelieve constriction of the airways and liquefy thethick mucus, and by physical therapy to helppatients cough up the obstructing secretions.Patients with pancreatic insufficiency can takepancreatic enzymes with meals. Intestinalobstruction, which occurs primarily in infancy(meconium ileus), may require surgery. The livermay also be seriously affected by Cystic Fibrosis.No cure for the disease has yet been found. Cysticfibrosis is the most common inherited fatal diseaseof Cauca sians, occurring about once in every2500 births. If both parents pay the generesponsible for the disease, they have aone-in-four chance of having an affected child. In1989, the gene responsible for cystic fibrosis wasidentified on chromosome 7 (out of 23chromosomes). Since that judgment of conviction more than 200different mutations in the cystic fibrosis gene havebeen described, and tests have been developed todetect the most common alterations. These testscan identify unaffected(p) carriers of the disorder.Sickle-Cell Anemia Sickle-Cell Anemia, alsocalled sickle-cell disease, is a hereditary conditionwhere hemoglobin, an oxygen-carrying protein inthe blood, is altered, leading to periodicinterruptions in blood circulation. All over theworld. the disease is found preponderantly inblacks, of whom approximately 1 in 400 areaffected it mainly occurs in the US, in the MiddleEast and the Mediterranean area. Symptoms ofthe condition search at about six months of ageand may include en largement of the abdomen andheart and painful swelling of the hands and feet. Inadolescence, sexual development may be delayed.The disturbances in blood flow associated with thedisease also dispose affected persons to infectionsand leg ulcers. These symptoms are due to thealtered hemoglobin, which changes shape whenthe amount of oxygen in the b... ...vum having 24 chromosomes by a sperm with anormal assortment of 23, but they have also foundthat the sperm can carry the extra chromosome aswell. The abnormal ovum or sperm is derived froma germ cell in which the pair of 21st chromosomesholds together and passes into the kindred sperm orovum instead of separating. In the type of Downsyndrome called translocation, the extrachromosome 21 material is attached to one of theother chromosomes when some, but not all, of thebodys cells carry an extra chromosome 21, thecondition is a type of Down syndrome calledmosaicism. Down syndrome is not yet responsiveto medical treatment, but better med ical dish out ofthe accompanying disorders and infections nowresults in an almost normal life span instead of theprevious life expectancy of about 14 years. Theseverely retard may still be institutionalized, butmany Down syndrome children are raised athome, where their full potential can be developed.Although, with an average moral age of abouteight years, they continue to need a protectiveenvironment, many adults with Down syndromework in sheltered workshops some hold timedjobs in business and industry.