Blood Clotting

[ACyanNight]

Does anyone know if blood will clot when it’s stagnant, but without the aid of clotting factors? For example, if you accidentally cut yourself, and blood drops onto the floor, will it clot even though there aren’t clotting factors? Or are the clotting factors released quickly enough that they will always be there if a blood vessel is broken?

[JackBean]

try it and you will see 😉
But there is some limiting amount of present clotters. Just think about when they take you blood, they have to treat it so it won’t clott 😉

[Darby]

A drop of free blood will dry up pretty quickly, so it would be hard to tell.

[biohazard]

Blood does not clot if there are no clotting factors, or they are inactivated. A drop of blood on the floor will dry, not clot.

If the blood is stagnant and there aro no clotting factors the blood cells will simply sediment and clear plasma or serum will remain on top of the cells. Erythrocytes, being the heaviest, will sediment first and for the vast majority of the cell pellet that emerges.

Actually one of the oldest laboratory tests still in use takes advantage of this fact: in the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) test the clotting factors are inactivated by, say, sodium citrate and then the time of erythrocyte sedimentation is measured. The rate of sedimentation is increased in many diseases and in some other cases (such as because of old age or pregnancy). The test is used mainly for screening and usually followed by more specific tests if required.

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