What Is Blood Anyway?

A few years ago I had a great opportunity to write an article series for EMS Magazine called Blood On Tap. It was all about the pioneering work being done by different pharmaceutical groups to create artificial substitutes for blood. The technical name for the pharmaceutical products that mimic the properties of blood is “oxygen therapeutics.” Here’s the inside scoop, directly from the drug company big wigs, on why we don’t call them something cool like artificial blood. The thing is, the drug company’s know full well that these fancy solutions are nowhere near advanced enough to mimic the many complex properties and functions of blood. That’s why they are aiming for the single goal of reproducing bloods ability to carry oxygen around the body. And, hence, the more lame name. All told, blood is pretty magical stuff. Our understanding of blood in the prehospital universe only scratches the surface of all of bloods capabilities. However, there are several functions and properties of blood that you should know. Here’s a quick crash course: Plasma Plasma is the viscous, pale yellow fluid that all of the products of blood are dissolved or suspended within. If you’ve ever seen a blood tube after it’s been spun in a centrifuge, plasma is that thin yellow band of goo that form at the top. While plasma is 90 percent water, it remains pretty amazing. Proteins, platelets, electrolytes, dissolved gasses and nutrients are all susp...
Source: The EMT Spot - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: EMT Source Type: blogs