What Students Need To Know About Bleeding Disorders.

Normal blood clotting involves blood components, called platelets, and as many as 20 different plasma proteins. These are known as blood clotting or coagulation factors. These factors interact with other chemicals to form a substance that stops bleeding called fibrin. Problems can occur when certain factors are low or missing. Bleeding problems can range from mild to severe. Bleeding disorders are a group of conditions that result when the blood cannot clot properly. In normal clotting, platelets, a type of blood cell, stick together and form a plug at the site of an injured blood vessel. Proteins in the blood called clotting factors then interact to form a fibrin clot, essentially a gel plug, which holds the platelets in place and allows healing to occur at the site of the injury while preventing blood from escaping the blood vessel. While too much clotting can lead to conditions such as heart attacks and strokes, the inability to form clots can be very dangerous as well, as it can result in excessive ble