Thrombosis: Summary

00:00 So, in summary, in this first lecture on the venous system, we’ve talked about the most common and potentially serious illness from the venous system, which is that which occurs when a thrombus or blood clot – a solid mass of platelets and fibrin – forms locally in the vein and often is associated with activation of a clotting mechanism that increases the size of the blood clot.

00:29 It’s not uncommon for these clots to form in the veins of the legs, much more common than in the arms, where they block blood flow. Pieces of these clots can break off and travel to the lung circulation where they cut off blood flow to a portion of the lung – that’s pulmonary embolism. We’re already talked about it. Patients can be very sick with pulmonary embolism or it can even be fatal. And we’ll be talking more about therapy as we go along and talk more about pulmonary embolism in a subsequent lecture. The therapy is, of course, blood thinners or blood-clot dissolvers to help resolve the clots that are already in the lung.