Blood plasma

Blood Plasma

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Blood plasma

Blood plasma is the liquid

Liquid

Liquid is one of the principal states of matter. A liquid is a fluid that has the particles loose and can freely form a distinct surface at the boundaries of its bulk material....
component of blood

Blood

Blood is a specialized bodily fluid that delivers necessary substances to the body's Cell s ? such as nutrients and oxygen ? and transports waste products away from those same cells....
, in which the blood cell

Blood cell

A blood cell is any cell of any type normally found in blood. In mammals, these fall into three general categories:*Red blood cells*White blood cells...
s are suspended. It makes up about 55% of total blood volume

Volume

The volume of any solid, liquid, plasma, vacuum or theoretical object is how much three-dimensional space it occupies, often quantified numerically....
. It is composed of mostly water (90% by volume), and contains dissolved proteins, glucose, clotting factors, mineral ions, hormones

Hormone

Hormones are chemicals released by cells that affect cells in other parts of the body. Only a small amount of hormone is required to alter cell metabolism....
and carbon dioxide (plasma being the main medium for excretory product transportation). Blood plasma is prepared simply by spinning a tube of fresh blood

Blood fractionation

Blood fractionation is the process of fractionation whole blood, or separating it into its component parts. This is typically done by centrifuge the blood....
in a centrifuge

Centrifuge

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Blood plasma is the liquid

Liquid

Blood

Blood cell

Volume

Hormone

Blood fractionation

Blood fractionation is the process of fractionation whole blood, or separating it into its component parts. This is typically done by centrifuge the blood....
in a centrifuge

Centrifuge

A centrifuge is a piece of equipment, generally driven by a motor, that puts an object in rotation around a fixed axis, applying a force perpendicular to the axis....
until the blood cells fall to the bottom of the tube. The blood plasma is then poured or drawn off. Blood serum is blood plasma without fibrinogen or the other clotting factors.

Plasmapheresis

Plasmapheresis

Plasmapheresis is the removal, treatment, and return of blood plasma from Circulatory system. It is thus an extracorporeal therapy. The method can also be used to collect plasma for further manufacturing into a variety of medications....
is a type of medical therapy involving separation of plasma from red blood cells.

Fresh frozen plasma and other transfused plasmas

"Fresh frozen plasma" (FFP) is prepared from a single unit

Whole blood

Apheresis

Apheresis is a medical technology in which the blood of a donor or patient is passed through an apparatus that separates out one particular constituent and returns the remainder to the circulation....
, drawn from a single person. It is frozen to after collection and can be stored for ten years from date of collection. The term "FFP" is sometimes used informally to mean any frozen transfusable plasma product, including products which do not meet the standards for FFP. FFP contains all of the coagulation factors and proteins present in the original unit of blood. It is used to treat coagulopathies

Coagulopathy

Coagulopathy is a medical term for a defect in the body's mechanism for blood clotting....
from warfarin

Warfarin

Warfarin is an anticoagulant. It was initially marketed as a pesticide against rats and mice, and is still popular for this purpose, although more potent poisons such as brodifacoum have since been developed....
overdose, liver disease

Liver disease

Liver disease is a broad term describing any single number of diseases affecting the liver. Many are accompanied by jaundice caused by increased levels of bilirubin in the system....
, or dilutional coagulopathy. Other transfusable plasma is identical except that the coagulation factors are no longer considered completely viable. This is particularly important for Factor VIII

Factor VIII

Factor VIII is an essential thrombusting factor. In humans, Factor VIII is encoded by the F8 gene. Defects in this gene results in hemophilia A, a common Dominance_#Recessive_trait X-linked coagulation disorder....
and hemophilia, but these have been mostly replaced by more specific factor VIII concentrates in the developed world and true FFP is rarely used for that indication.

Plasma which has been used as a source of Cryoprecipitate

Cryoprecipitate

Cryoprecipitate, also called "Cryoprecipitated Antihemophilic Factor", "Cryoprecipitated AHF", and most commonly just "cryo", is a frozen blood product prepared from Blood plasma....
(Plasma, Cryoprecipitate Reduced) cannot be used for treatment of some coagulation problems but is still acceptable for many uses.

Dried plasma

"Dried plasma" was developed and first used in WWII

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. Prior to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
' involvement in the war, liquid plasma and whole blood

Whole blood

Whole Blood is the term used in transfusion medicine for human blood from a standard blood donation. The blood is typically combined with an anticoagulant during the collection process, but is generally otherwise unprocessed....
were used. The "Blood for Britain" program during the early 1940s was quite successful (and popular in the United States) based on Dr. Charles Drew's contribution. A large project

Project

A project in business and science is a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim....
was begun in August of the year 1940 to collect blood in New York City

New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
hospitals for the export of plasma to Britain

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
. Dr. Drew was appointed medical supervisor of the "Plasma for Britain" project. His notable contribution at this time was to transform the test tube

Test tube

A test tube, also known as a culture tube, sample tube, test flute or flaccid flute, is a piece of laboratory glassware composed of a finger-like length of glass tubing, open at the top, with a rounded U-shaped bottom....
methods of many blood research

Research

Research is defined as human activity based on intellectual application in the investigation of matter. The primary purpose for applied research is discovery , interpretation , and the development of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge on a wide variety of scientific matters of our world and the universe....
ers, including himself, into the first successful mass production

Mass production

Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines. The concepts of mass production are applied to various kinds of products, from fluids and particulates handled in bulk to discrete solid parts to assemblies of such parts ....
techniques.

Nonetheless, the decision was made to develop a dried plasma package for the armed forces

Armed forces

The armed forces of a country are its government-sponsored defense, fighting forces, and organizations. They exist to further the foreign and domestic policies of their governing body, and to defend that body and the nation it represents from external and internal aggressors....
as it would reduce breakage and make the transportation, packaging, and storage much simpler.

The resulting Army

Army

An army , in the broadest sense, is the land-based armed forces of a nation. It may also include other branches of the military such as an air force....
-Navy

Navy

A navy is the branch of a nation's military forces principally designated for naval warfare and amphibious warfare; namely, lake- or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions....
dried plasma package came in two tin can

Tin can

A tin can, also called a tin or a can, is an air-tight Packaging and labelling for the distribution or storage of goods, composed of thin metal, and requiring cutting or tearing of the metal as the means of opening....
s containing 400 cc

Cubic centimetre

A cubic centimetre or cubic centimeter is a commonly used unit of volume extending the derived International System of Units-unit cubic metre and corresponds to the volume of a cube measuring 1?1?1 cm....
bottles. One bottle contained enough distilled water to completely reconstitute the dried plasma contained within the other bottle. In about three minute

Minute

A minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle.The minute is a Unit of measurement of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the Coordinated Universal Time time scale, a minute occasionally has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second....
s, the plasma would be ready to use and could stay fresh for around four hour

Hour

The hour is a unit of time. It is not an SI unit but is Non-SI units accepted for use with SI....
s.

Following the "Plasma for Britain" invention, Dr. Drew was named director

Executive director

An executive director is the senior General manager or executive officer of an organization, company , or corporation. The position is comparable to a chief executive officer or managing director....
of the Red Cross blood bank

Blood bank

A blood bank is a cache or bank of blood or List of human blood components, gathered as a result of blood donation, stored and preserved for later use in blood transfusions....
and assistant director of the National Research Council

National Research Council

National Research Council may refer to:* National Research Council , Canada's leading organization for scientific research and development* National Scientific and Technical Research Council, an Argentine government agency which directs and co-ordinates most of the scientific and technical research done in public universities and institute...
, in charge of blood collection for the United States Army and Navy. Dr. Drew argued against the armed forces directive

Directive

Directive may refer to:* European Union directive, a legislative act of the European Union* Directive , a highly-acclaimed poem by Robert Frost...
that blood/plasma was to be separated by the race of the donor

Blood donation

A blood donation is when a healthy person free will has blood drawn. The blood is used for blood transfusion or made into medications by a process called fractionation#Plasma protein fractionation....
. Dr. Drew argued that there was no racial difference in human

Human

A human being, also human or man, is a member of a species of bipedalism primates in the family Hominidae . Mitochondrial DNA evidence indicates that modern humans originated in east Africa about 200,000 years ago....
blood and that the policy

Policy

A policy is typically described as a deliberate plan of action to guide decisions and achieve rational outcome. However, the term may also be used to denote what is actually done, even though it is unplanned....
would lead to needless death

Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that define a life organism. It refers to both a particular event and to the condition that results thereby....
s as soldier

Soldier

A soldier is a general English term that refers to a land component of national armed forces.In most societies of the world, "soldier" is also a general term for any member of the land forces including Commissioned officer and non-commissioned officers....
s and sailor

Sailor

A sailor or mariner is a person who navigates ships or assists in their operation, maintenance, or service. The term can apply to professional mariners, military personnel, and recreational sailors as well as a plethora of other uses....
s were required to wait for "same race" blood.

By the end of the war the American Red Cross

American Red Cross

The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States, and is the designated U.S....
had provided enough blood for over six million plasma packages. Most of the surplus

Surplus

Surplus may refer to:always in need* budget surplus, the opposite of a deficit* in economics, economic surplus , and capital surplus* an excess of production or supply over demand ...
plasma was returned to the United States for civilian

Civilian

A civilian under international humanitarian law is a person who is not a member of his or her country's armed forces. The term is also often used colloquially to refer to people who are not members of a particular profession or occupation, especially by law enforcement agency, which often use rank structures similar to those of military units...
use. Serum albumin

Serum albumin

Serum albumin, often referred to simply as albumin, is the most abundant plasma protein in humans and other mammals. Albumin is essential for maintaining the osmotic pressure needed for proper distribution of body fluids between intravascular compartments and body tissues....
replaced dried plasma for combat

Combat

Combat, or fighting, is purposeful violence conflict intended to establish dominance over the opposition.The term "combat" typically refers to armed conflict between military forces in warfare, whereas the more general term "fighting" can refer to any violent conflict....
use during the Korean War

Korean War

The Korean War refers to a period of military conflict between North Korea and South Korea regimes, with major hostilities lasting from June 25, 1950 until the armistice signed on July 27, 1953....
.

Blood plasma

Fresh frozen plasma and other transfused plasmas

Dried plasma

See also