Author Topic: Blood clotting in test tube - help please  (Read 12405 times)

Fi

Blood clotting in test tube - help please
« on: 22 October, 2008, 09:37:15 pm »
A blood test is done on adimission to hospital.  Under the lights in the ward it seems to have a bluey purply tinge.  The blood clots before it can be sent to the lab for analysis.

Blood tests are taken again an hour or so later and again the blood clots before it gets to the lab.

Why would two lots of blood from the same patient clot so quickly?   

What the hell is supraventricular bigeminy? I have googled, but can't make head nor tail of what comes up. 

Re: Blood clotting in test tube - help please
« Reply #1 on: 22 October, 2008, 10:01:33 pm »
Supraventricular literally means "above the ventricles". It usually means that the electrical pulses that regulate the heart are short circuiting and firing the top half too rapidly.

Bigeminy means having a pair of pulse beats rapidly close together and a pause before the next pair.

In evaluating the usefulness of this answer, you should take account of the fact that my best medical qualification is that my Mum was a nurse.
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Re: Blood clotting in test tube - help please
« Reply #2 on: 22 October, 2008, 10:08:35 pm »
Very difficult to answer this as I do not know the context, or the level of information needed, but to reassure you, the blood you describe could be perfectly normal venous blood.

The clotting: well, the request may have been for a clotted sample. Otherwise the clotting could be due to a procedural issue, for instance the quantity of blood in the bottle.

I am a cardiac nurse but I really feel it is inappropriate, and possibly counter-productive, to embark on a definition of the phenomenon you describe. It may or may not have any clinical significance at all.

If this query refers to yourself or someone close to you who is in hospital at present, I'd suggest speaking to nursing or medical staff to discuss your worries, as information out of context is unlikely to be of any help to you and is likely to cause nothing but confusion. Speak to someone knowledgeable who knows the patient and the clinical context.

Fi

Re: Blood clotting in test tube - help please
« Reply #3 on: 22 October, 2008, 10:18:33 pm »
Thanks. I suspect I'm fussing a bit.  My husband had the blood tests, they said not to worry about the clotting and a month later, while we were in France,  he ended up in hospital with a blocked humeral artery and being told his heart ain't right and get to a cardiologist as soon as we get home.  There's loads more stuff I've had translated for the doc here, and we await advice.

Plucky, does the NHS have translation facilities, or am I better getting it done by a competent translator?


Re: Blood clotting in test tube - help please
« Reply #4 on: 22 October, 2008, 10:46:34 pm »
There are translation services to help non-English speaking patients during their treatment and care - we quite often book translators for our patients during their visits to the department, for instance.

I take it you are referring to translation of French medical reports in your possession? To begin with, a lot of the clinical data, let's say blood results or ultrasound reports, will be readily understood by your cardiologist or other doctors without translation. In addition many French medical terms are easily translatable into English by a doctor that is familiar with the speciality concerned.

In reality it is likely that the doctors will take a history, use the French data to inform that history-taking, and then carry out their own investigations.

[Edit: in my experience of situations in which patients arrive with medical reports in another language, there is always someone in the hospital who can translate, especially if it is in a European language. It's quite common to put an email request out and most hospitals maintain a list of staff on site who can be called upon to translate if it is urgent. If the language is French, some of the people on that list are likely to be medical staff themselves]

I'd advise against attempts to translate the reports yourself, or over the internet, and let the doctors sort that out if they want to. All you need to do is to ensure he receives the appropriate referrals via his GP or via A&E if he is acutely unwell.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Blood clotting in test tube - help please
« Reply #5 on: 23 October, 2008, 12:22:46 am »
In the bad old days when we took blood by syringe with which we then filled the tubes, blood would frequently clot if we didn't get it into the tubes with anticoagulant in them quickly enough; this was often the case with 'difficult' patients.
Some blood samples are collected into tubes without anti-coagulant and are expected to clot.
Some are collected into tubes with anticoagulant but it is essential that the blood and anticoagulant mix well (gently) shortly after collection.
Blood does normally clot; that why we don't bleed to death from trivial cuts. Some people's blood clots too easily, causing blockage in blood vessels, for example.

Bigeminy suggests alternating normal and abnormal beats.
Supraventricular suggests that the abnormal beat originates 'above' the ventricles of the heart and is conducted through the normal  conducting system at least in part.

The reasons and consequences for this are way beyond discussion here.
 

Fi

Re: Blood clotting in test tube - help please
« Reply #6 on: 24 October, 2008, 11:17:09 am »
Thanks all.  No, I didn't do the translation myself,  I know my limitations!  I got a firm of translators who do that sort of thing to do it.

The French doc rejoiced in the name of Dr Coffin.