Thursday 10 March 2022

Hematologist's monologue: TO CLOT, OR NOT TO CLOT



SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio (registered pseudonym) and Dr. GH, July 2019. Thoughts about blood-clotting disorders and their treatment have been incited by current health issues affecting family and friends. 
Many of today's verses are also under review at OEDILF.com, an online humor dictionary that has accumulated over 100,000 carefully edited limericks.  Links to other medically-related posts here at "Edifying Nonsense" are given at the bottom of this post.



EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:





CURRENT CONTENTS
Coagulation disorders (executive summary)
The coagulation cascade
Deep vein thrombosis (Virchow's triad)
Pulmonary embolism
Anti-coagulants




DETAILED STATEMENT






Authors' Note: The most common complication of internal bleeding in hemophilic patients is hemarthrosis, bleeding into joints, that may be unprovoked, yet result in significant disability.
Earlier versions of replacement therapy to provide for missing blood proteins with human blood-bank products has been discussed previously. Current treatment involves a genetically engineered  material derived from hamster cells, superior in not provoking antibodies that limit its effectiveness.  


Learn more about hemophilia and its current treatment with hamster-derived biosynthetic proteins at Wikipedia.







Authors' Note:

stasis: an absence of flow, or markedly reduced flow

deep venous thrombosis (DVT): a condition in which clots form in the deep veins, usually of the calves; the disorder often produces symptoms, but may be silent

The above verse conjures studies of factors in causation of DVT more than a century ago by Rudolf Virchow (FEER-koh), the famed German pathologist, that eventually resulted in the concept 'Virchow's triad'. The modern triad includes the elements of venous stasis, increased coagulability of the blood, and damage to the local endothelium (lining of the blood vessels).

 














OVERLAPPING THEMES







Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 160 of these!) on medical/dental topics that can now be found on various posts. 


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