Coagulation of Blood: Blood Coagulation is the process of forming a clot or thrombus in order to prevent excess loss of blood from the body. It is a gel-like mass that is formed by the platelets and fibrin in the blood.

The mechanism by which the body stops bleeding to prevent constant loss of blood is known as hemostasis. The entire process is divided here into three major steps:

• The primary hemostasis involves the process of vasoconstriction, which responds to the injury of the body in the vascular wall. Once injured, the vascular walls react immediately by reducing the amount of blood flow in the infected area.
• Next, the platelets play a key role in covering the injured area to stop the bleeding. They also activate a process that forms a fibrin clot known as the secondary hemostasis. This leads to the release of stored granular contents which contain serotonin, ADP and thromboxane, which results in further activation of platelets in the blood plasma.
• Since the platelets alone could not secure the damages caused to the vessel walls, thus a blood clot should be formed necessarily. This formation of the blood clots depends on several clotting factors which activate each other in the clotting cascade.
• This cascade results in the formation of fibrinogen, which is a soluble plasma protein. The fibrinogen is converted into fibrin proteins and they finally stick together to form a clot. Platelet clots are termed white thrombus and if the red blood cells are also present, it is known as red thrombus.

Deep Vein Thrombosis

The Blood clotting process may not always proceed smoothly, as in the case of deep vein thrombosis. Deep Vein Thrombosis or DVT is caused when the Blood clot takes place in one or multiple deeply located veins in the body. Generally, after the Blood clotting process, these clots dissolve, as is natural in the process of Blood clotting. However, after dissolving, the clots travel through the bloodstream and affect other organs such as the lungs or the chest, where they block the flow of the Bloodstream. The typical symptom of DVT is pain in the muscles, particularly in the legs, along with swelling. Most of the time, the clots occur without any perceptible symptoms. DVT takes place due to medical reasons or the lack of frequency in the body movements.

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By Team Learning Mantras