Why blood clots are formed and how they are diagnosed?

Even a small cut or an injury can break blood vessels, resulting in heavy bleeding. When the bleeding stops, it is normally seen that the blood becomes thickened at the area of injury. The thickening of the blood is sometimes referred to as a an external blood clot or commonly called a scab. The blood clots prevents additional bleeding, simultaneously helping in recovering from an injury.

However, if a blood clot forms inside blood vessels, it can cause serious complications. The blood clot formed inside blood vessels is also referred to as thrombus.  If the clot manifests, inside the lungs it is referred to as pulmonary embolism or PE, in the deep veins like the legs it is a called a deep vein thrombosis or DVT, in the superficial veins a superficial vein thrombosis, in the sagittal veins a sagittal vein thrombosis, and in the head a stroke.

There are several reasons responsible for causing blood clots in the body, out of which, the most important ones are as follows:

1. Smoking – there’s no reason to smoke, quit today or come up with a plan to stop or lower the amount you smoke
2. Obesity
3. Decreased mobility and lack of physical activity
4. Genetic disorders
5. Increasing age
6. Arteriosclerosis

Apart from these, birth control pills like yasmin also may result in the formation of blood clots in lungs and veins, resulting in serious complications. There are cases of death that have also been reported as a side effect of these contraceptive pills. Women who have suffered side effects of such contraceptive pills should contact a yasmin lawyer to file a suit as soon as possible as the ability to participate in the litigation is coming to a close.

How blood clots are diagnosed?

There are a variety of tests conducted to diagnose formation of blood clots in the body. Mentioned below are some of the techniques that doctors use to diagnose blood clots.

1. Ultrasound- It is one of the common tests done to check presence of blood clots in lungs, veins and other parts of the body. To diagnose blood clots in veins, doctors put a gel on the affected area. A handheld device is also placed on the leg, which will send sound waves from leg to the ultrasound machine. According to the recorded sound waves, a visual image is formed on the computer screen, which makes it easy for the doctors to examine flow of blood in veins.

2. Venography- Doctors make use of this technique, when they are unable to diagnose blood clots accurately through ultrasound. It is actually a type of X-ray, meant for examining condition of legs.

3. CT scan- A CT scan is also one of the effective techniques for diagnosing yaz pulmonary embolism and deep vein thrombosis. One of the biggest advantages associated with CT scans is that they provide three-dimensional views. For performing CT scan, doctors inject dye in bloodstream through arms. The dye will highlight blood clots in veins.