Hemodynamics, Thrombosis, and Embolism Review

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture transcript including thrombosis mechanisms, vascular patterns, infarction, hypercoagulability, and various types of emboli.

Endothelial Damage

Fraying of the endothelial lining of a vessel that exposes underlying collagen, providing a site for platelets to adhere and initiate thrombus formation.

Turbulence

Swirling of blood flow that causes platelet margination, scraping along vessel walls, and local stasis, creating an environment that promotes thrombus formation.

Mural Thrombuses

Thrombi that form inside the heart, typically occurring underneath valve flaps like the mitral valve or within the nooks and crannies of the atrial walls.

Atrial Fibrillation

A condition causing the atrial walls to vibrate, which can shed small thrombi formed in the wall nooks and crannies, requiring patients to take blood thinners.

Circle of Willis

A circular arterial structure at the base of the brain supplied by the internal carotid and basilar arteries, prone to turbulence and berry aneurysm formation.

Berry Aneurysm

A small, berry-like vascular outpouching that frequently forms in areas of high blood flow turbulence around the circle of Willis in the brain.

Hypercoagulability

An increased tendency to form blood clots due to genetic factors, an underactive anti-clot system, or acquired risks such as age over 45, high blood pressure, and oral contraceptive use.

Recanalization

A outcome of thrombus organization in which new tunnels and passive flow channels are created through a clot to restore downstream blood flow.

Propagation

The progressive growth and enlargement of a thrombus along the length of a blood vessel.

Infarction

Tissue necrosis caused by a thrombus or embolus growing large enough to completely occlude a blood vessel, cutting off downstream oxygen and nutrients.

Tree Vascular Pattern

A branching vascular pattern without reconnecting pathways, characteristic of the heart and brain, making these organs especially susceptible to infarction.

Reticulum Vascular Pattern

An interconnected vascular network found in most tissues that provides alternate routes for blood flow, offering protection against severe ischemic injury.

Emboli

Detached intravascular solid, liquid, or gaseous masses (such as thrombus fragments) that travel through the bloodstream until lodging in a vessel with a diameter too small to pass.

Pulmonary Embolism

An obstruction in the pulmonary arterial tree caused by an embolus, 90% of which originate from deep veins in the legs and travel up to the heart and lungs.

Fat Embolus

An embolus composed of fat droplets released into the bloodstream, often associated with bone fractures (releasing yellow marrow) or ruptured hepatocytes in alcoholics with fatty liver.

The Bends

A form of gas embolism occurring in deep sea divers who surface too quickly, causing dissolved nitrogen gas to rapidly exit solution and form painful air locks in the blood.

Henry's Law

A gas law describing gas solubility and concentration, explaining why nonpolar nitrogen gas is forced into solution in blood under high underwater ambient pressures.

Amniotic Fluid Embolism

A rare (1 in 80,000 births) and highly lethal obstetric emergency caused by amniotic fluid carrying fetal skin cells into maternal circulation, triggering severe inflammation, DIC, and catastrophic bleeding.

Hagman's Factor

Factor 12, a blood protein activated by friction or minor inflammation that simultaneously triggers both the intrinsic clotting cascade and the anti-clot fibrinolytic system.