Blood

Blood

What is blood?

Blood is that red liquid that goes round your veins and arteries. Its pretty important.

What can I learn about blood?

• Blood composition is the make up of blood, from electrolytes, fluid and cells.
• Coagulation is the process of clot formation.
• Haemostasis is the system by which the blood is maintained, and the vascular system kept intact.

What can go wrong with blood?

Blood is incredibly important, which means that problems involving it tend to be quite serious, and dealt with by very clever haematologists. The two key problems that you get are:

• When clotting works too well, where you get thrombosis.
• If it doesn't work at all you get bleeding disorders.

Why not also read about some of the more common blood pathologies? You should also know about the key blood tests, such as FBC, U+Es and LFTs.