Why are BLOOD CLOTS so DANGEROUS right NOW?

blood clots are making a lot of headlines right now and I won't go into the details about that in this video but let's talk about what blood clots are and why they're so dangerous right now the medical term for a blood clot is a thrombosis when we talk about a blood clot we're almost always referring to a blood clot that initially forms in a vein not an artery and then that blood clot breaks off travels in the bloodstream and then lodges into another location and when it does that it's called an embolism so everything I just described taken as a whole is called a Venus thromboembolism or a VTE for short over the past few years even before covid the burden of VTE disease has been increasing in fact now the incidence for our first episode of Venus thrombo embolism in the population is about one to two per one thousand person years VTE most commonly starts out as a blood clot in the leg and then it breaks off and travels to the lungs there are literally thousands of reasons why someone can get a blood clot but whatever the cause it's almost always related to three specific processes known as virtual's Triad one reduced blood flow as occurs when someone is immobile for a long period of time two disturbances or injury to the wall of the blood vessels for example the wall of the vein or the wall of the artery and even when you have atrial fibrillation when there's no movement of the Atria that blood becomes stagnant there and I'll get into that later and then the third thing is changes in blood components that make the blood more prone to clotting for example some people have what's known as the prothrombin gene mutation but the reality is is that VTE it usually develops as a result of the synergistic effect of multiple risk factors for example let's say someone is genetically predisposed to having blood clots like they might have the prothrombin G mutation and if that person becomes immobilized for a long period of time like if they're on a long road trip or if they're on a long plane ride or or maybe they have surgery where they're not where they're not able to get out of bed for a long time well that person is much more likely to develop a blood clot when you start adding on all those risk factors then there's tons of genetic mutations that can make someone more prone to blood clots there's Factor five lighter mutation there's anti-thrombin deficiency protein C deficiency protein s deficiency in addition to that prothrombin gene mutation then there's other circumstances that increase that risk now I mentioned surgery already but also things like physical trauma being immobile for other reasons certain medications especially hormonal medications like oral contraceptive pills and a bunch of medical conditions like cancer anti-phospholipid antibody syndrome nephrotic syndrome pnh peroxismal nocturnal hemoglobinaria and yes certain infections including covid so why are blood clots so dangerous some blood clots go unnoticed and end up being completely harmless some blood clots go unnoticed but then break off travel to the lungs and cause death within minutes these are extreme ends of the spectrum and then there's everything in between which is what most people experience when they get a blood clot when someone gets a blood clot in the Deep veins of the leg AKA a deep vein thrombosis or DVT most people will have symptoms that leg will most likely become swollen it'll have more of a pink or reddish appearance and be somewhat painful that clot can almost always be seen with an ultrasound of the leg but symptoms or no symptoms that clot can break off travel via the largest vein in the body the IVC the inferior vena cava and then it makes its way to the right atrium of the heart then to the right ventricle of the heart then to the pulmonary artery and eventually becomes lodged in the smaller branches of the pulmonary arteries inside the lungs and this is problematic for a few different reasons for one that means that part of the lung is not getting blood flow which not only makes it harder for the lungs to get oxygen into the bloodstream but it can also caused part of the affected lung tissue to die off that's when it's called a pulmonary infarction and sometimes that blood clot is so big it ends up blocking so much blood flow that the heart can barely pump blood forward sometimes this is so extreme that it causes someone to go into cardiac arrest and things get really bad when you combine all of these processes together so with the lungs not getting enough oxygen to the blood that means that the heart is getting less oxygen and the heart is having a harder time pumping blood forward and when you combine all these things together it accumulates pretty quickly and things start escalating out of control to the point where you end up with potentially catastrophic consequences this is why blood clots should never be taken lightly blood clots can also first develop in the arms but this is usually a result of someone having an IV catheter in one of the big veins in the neck or the upper arm region or if someone has a cancer in that region and sometimes they form in the veins of the brain something like central venous thrombosis it's an uncommon but very serious disorder where the symptoms ranging from headache confusion visual loss seizures all the way to Coma why do people get central Venous Thrombosis while many cases have been linked to genetic conditions that make people more prone to clotting but it can also be related to infections in cancer blood clots can sometimes affect arteries as well rarely blood clots can actually first form in an artery especially in conditions like peroxisible nocturnal hemoglobinuria and anti-phospholipid antibody syndrome more commonly though blood clots can be found in arteries as a result of one of two scenarios one is what happens when people have atrial fibrillation now in this condition the blood and the Atria of the heart especially in that left atrium it becomes stagnant as a result of loss of that atrial pumping that occurs in this condition basically when atrial fibrillation is going on the Atria are essentially just quivering and they're not actually pump so when the blood becomes stagnant the likelihood of clot formation there is exponentially increased and then that blood clot travels to the left ventricle of the heart and from there it can go to pretty much any artery of the body it can go to the arteries of the brain and cause a stroke it can travel to the arteries of the gut and cause mesenteric ischemia it can travel to the arteries of the leg and cause a blockage of blood flow to that limb now another way a clot can end up in an artery is when there's literally a hole in the heart something known as an atrial septal defect which is more common than people realize now there's different types of atrial septal defects but basically it's a hole that exists in the wall that separates the right and left atrium so let's say someone develops a DVT of the leg and that blood clot then breaks off it travels to the vena cava and subsequently makes its way to the right atrium of the heart well it can then go through that atrial septal defect and now it's in the left atrium from there it can go to the left ventricle and then to the aorta and then to any arterial aerial branch of that aorta including arteries of the brain where it can cause a stroke there's different arteries that serve the brain and depending on which arteries those blood clots end up lodging in it will affect said area of the brain and so then suing neurological defects will depend on not only the size of the stroke but also the location of the brain that is affected

Channel: Doctor Mike Hansen

Views: 49,213

Keywords: covid vaccine, blood clots, heart attack, thrombosis, Causes of Deep Vein Thrombosis, covid blood clots, vaccine blood clots, doctor mike hansen, doctor mike, blood clots leg, blood clots ballers, blood clots lungs, blood clots heart

Id: VEn7MsL9Bjo

Length: 7min 19sec (439 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 24 2023