360 Human Explorer › Force Field Fact Sheet · SCD › 360 Anatomy: Sickle Cell Disease
🫀 Interactive 3D Anatomy · Hematology / Vascular

Walk Inside Sickle Cell Disease

Spin, zoom, and click the model to see exactly where SCD lives in the body. Bone marrow, red blood cells, the vessels they get stuck in, and the organs they damage when they do — spleen, lungs, brain, kidneys, bones, eyes. Pair this with the Fact Sheet to make every other square click into place.

🧬Explore the Model

Powered by BioDigital Human. Use your mouse or finger to rotate. Click any structure to see its name, what it does, and a plain-language explanation. Use the layer controls (right side) to peel away skin, muscle, and bone.

Tip: Click the layers icon to toggle skin → muscle → vessels → organs. Audio: Click any structure, then the speaker icon to hear the proper pronunciation.

🎯What You'll See & Try

SCD is a whole-body disease. The model lets you visit every place it leaves a mark.

📚 What you'll see

  1. Bone marrow — where red cells are made; in SCD they're made faster than normal because they break down faster.
  2. Red blood cells & hemoglobin — normal donut-shaped cells vs. stiff, sickled curves.
  3. Blood vessels — small ones can clog when sickled cells get stuck.
  4. Spleen — usually scarred and non-working by age 5; that's why infection risk is high.
  5. Lungs — site of acute chest syndrome (the #1 cause of SCD-related death in adults).
  6. Brain — silent and overt strokes; TCD ultrasound screens for risk in kids.
  7. Kidneys, bones, eyes — slow damage that's worth annual screening.

🧪 Try this in the model

  1. Find the spleen. Search "spleen" or rotate to the upper left abdomen. Note its small size — in long-standing SCD it shrinks from repeated infarcts.
  2. Open the layers panel and toggle skin/muscle off. See the skeleton + organs together. This is how clinicians think.
  3. Click a major artery. Imagine a sickled cell trying to pass through a small branch. That's what causes a pain crisis.
  4. Find the lungs. Acute chest syndrome lives here. Practice describing what you'd feel: pain, shortness of breath, low oxygen, fever.
  5. Take a screenshot of the organs that matter most for your version of SCD. Bring it to your next visit.

🩸SCD's Most-Affected Organs

Quick-reference card. Each tile names the organ, the SCD complication, and what to screen.

🦴
Bone marrow

Makes red cells faster than normal — high turnover, anemia.

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Lungs

Acute chest syndrome. Watch chest pain, SOB, low O₂, fever.

🧠
Brain

Silent + overt stroke. Yearly TCD ultrasound for kids.

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Heart

Pulmonary hypertension risk. Annual echo.

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Spleen

Scarred / non-functional by age 5 → infection risk.

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Kidneys

Concentrating defect, proteinuria. Annual urine + GFR.

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Bones & joints

Pain crises, avascular necrosis (often hip).

👁️
Eyes

Sickle retinopathy. Annual ophthalmology exam.

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