Disseminated Intravascular Coagulopathy (DIC) is referred to as the disorder that results when multiple disorders in the coagulation vessels occur something that leads to the interference of body’s clotting system. It could also be termed as the acquired disorder in the clotting system. These disorders lead to the clotting of blood within the vessels. The formational processes of these clots deplete the materials that help the blood to clot leading to excessive clotting and bleeding.
This paper is going to discuss about DIC in depth. According to Geiger (2003), disseminated coagulation means that clotting does not occur only in one part of the body but in the whole body. It can result through extrinsic and intrinsic pathway activation. The former happens when blood vessels’ endothelial lining is damaged and it can result even though blood vessels are not in direct contact with chemical irritants or any other harmful substances.
The damaged cells lead to the release of thromboplastin tissue which when it comes into contact with factor VII, the pathway becomes activated while the later means that coagulation results, “when a vascular injury exposes subndothelial tissue to direct contact with the blood stream. ” (Geiter, 2003; 109) The exact process through which disseminated intravascular coagulation takes place is something complicated. When blood vessels are in good shape, the blood platelets remain smooth but a problem occurs if they are damaged something that triggers off the coagulation process.
This forces the once smooth platelets to change their shape assuming the shape of a misshapen ball and become sticky. What then happens is that they stick themselves on the damaged wall linings and through a process known as disgranulation, the cytoplasm present in the platelets releases chemicals such as serotonin, adenosine diphosphate, thromboxane A2 4 and histamine that acts as a catalyst to the intravascular coagulation process.
The causes of DIC are many but it is hard to clearly single out the ultimate triggering mechanism but gram-negative sepsis is one of the known causes of the disease and accounts for about twenty percent of all the causes. Another thing that can cause DIC is shock irrespective of its kind. This process leads to the increase in the rate of acid production resulting to the destruction of intravascular endothelium. Other things that causes DIC are malignancy, leukemia and other obstetric accidents like retained placenta, eclampsia, amniotic fluid embolism and incomplete abortion (Geiter, 2003)