Have you ever tried reading your medical notes and been completely stumped by some terms? Or can you understand complex medical terms without pause?
Here are 10 medical terms related to coagulation issues. Just click on the term to see what they mean and see if you can score a perfect 10/10 (MD level!).
[su_spoiler title=”1. Melaena” style=”fancy” icon=”chevron-circle”]Tarry black bowel motions, that have a really terrible smell. They may mean there has been a bleed in your stomach and the blood has changed in character as it’s passed through your gastro-intestinal tract If this occurs to you, you should contact your doctor to discuss how urgent the situation is. If you can’t contact your doctor go to the emergency department.[/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”2. Prophylaxis” style=”fancy” icon=”chevron-circle”]Something used for prevention eg. When having surgery, having clexane injections to prevent a blood clot.[/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”3. Epistaxis” style=”fancy” icon=”chevron-circle”]Nose bleed. This is one of the commonest forms of bleeding in people on anticoagulants. You only need to attend the emergency department if the nose bleed lasts more than 30 mins. Otherwise sit up, pinch your nose and spit any blood into a bowl, until the nose bleed stops[/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”4. Morbidity” style=”fancy” icon=”chevron-circle”]Illness or disease within a particular population. This can apply to individuals: Morbidity after particular surgeries or illnesses means seeing what medical conditions occur in individuals to prevent full recovery. Post-thrombotic syndrome is part of the morbidity of DVT. It can also apply to larger populations. The morbidity rate looks at the incidence of a disease across a population and/or geographic location during a single year.[/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”5. Haematemesis” style=”fancy” icon=”chevron-circle”]Vomiting red blood. If this occurs to you, treat it very seriously and contact your doctor or go to the emergency department as soon as possible.[/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”6. Erythrocytes” style=”fancy” icon=”chevron-circle”]Red blood cells. When you cut yourself, the clot consists of erythrocytes and platelets caught in a fibrin web.[/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”7. Adherence” style=”fancy” icon=”chevron-circle”]Regularly remembering something. In medicine this usually refers to taking your medication. The term compliance used to be common but it was thought to smack of slave (patient) and task-master (doctor) rather than free choice by people involved in their own care.[/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”8. Lysis” style=”fancy” icon=”chevron-circle”]The process of getting rid of a clot by dissolving it. Giving thrombolytic drugs to lyse the clot is a mainstay of treatment in heart attack or stroke but very unusual in DVT or PE. See ‘Are you on the red or blue team?'[/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”9. Plasma” style=”fancy” icon=”chevron-circle”]Plasma is the liquid part of your blood; what’s left if you remove the red and white blood cells and platelets. Plasma is a yellowish colour and contains loads of different proteins including all the clotting factors. When people have a major haemorrhage, (for example after a road accident) they are given fresh frozen plasma to help replace their clotting factors as well as a blood transfusion of packed red cells. If the plasma is clotted the clotting factors are removed and what is left is called serum.[/su_spoiler]
[su_spoiler title=”10. Haemoptysis” style=”fancy” icon=”chevron-circle”]Coughing up blood. This can occur with a pulmonary embolus. It is uncommon as a side-effect of over anticoagulation. [/su_spoiler]
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