Sunday, August 7, 2011

Bleeding Disorders, Hemophilia, Antithrombin III Deficiency, Aspirin, Abnormal Platelet Count, Anticoagulation, Blood Clots and Cosmetic Surgery

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Blood clot formation is a complex process involving first the accumulation of cells in the blood called platelets to form a plug and then a number of proteins/enzymes also called clotting factors that act upon one another in a specific sequence one after the other like dominoes dropping called a cascade to form a mesh that reinforces the platelet plug. The end result of which we see and call a clot. The platelets are the white circles in the video below. The cascade allows immense production of clot in a shorter period of time from a small amount of initiating stimulus so it has been programmed into our systems through evolution i.e.the organism that can stop bleeding the quickest after injury has the best chance of surviving. Along the way there are built in inhibitory enzymes at different parts of the cascade so that the cascade does not get out of control and turn your bloodstream into a solid clot.
blood clotting cascade


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