Clotting cascade

Looks like

A chain of proteins in the plasma, each switching on the next, ending with threads of fibrin that bind platelets into a clot.

What it does

Seals broken vessels within minutes, then the clot is dissolved as the wound heals.

Keeping it well

Too little clotting (haemophilia, blood thinners) causes bleeding; too much causes thrombosis. Bruising easily or long bleeding from small cuts needs tests.

Related conditions

• African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)
• Aplastic anaemia & marrow failure
• Clotting disorders (thrombophilia & APS)
• Dehydration & electrolyte disorders
• Delirium
• Dengue & mosquito-borne fevers
• Diabetic ketoacidosis
• Disseminated intravascular coagulation
• Ebola virus disease
• G6PD deficiency (favism)
• Haemophilia & bleeding disorders
• Hereditary spherocytosis
• High cholesterol
• Malnutrition & refeeding syndrome
• Maternal (puerperal) sepsis
• MRSA and resistant staph infection
• Myelodysplastic syndromes
• Neonatal sepsis
• Neutropenic sepsis
• Postpartum haemorrhage
• Scrub typhus & rickettsial infections
• Sepsis
• Shock (circulatory failure)
• Toxic shock syndrome
• Typhoid & cholera
• Venomous snakebite
• Vitamin B1, C and other deficiencies
• Vitamin D deficiency
• Von Willebrand disease