Blood Clots

I found this article particularly interesting because one of my close friends sadly got a blood clot and just under went sugary in attempt to remove it, BUT they still don't know if the sugary was a success or not. the blood clot was located in her upper arm and when ever she worked out her arm would swell..... Little did she know if was a blood clot. Blood clots normally go unseen until it is too late and the person suffering from it has a stroke or a heart attack (Kevin Y. et al. 2013). Im beyond thankful that my friends blood clot was only located in her arm and not somewhere more serious. Apparently now MIT had produced a new way to test if someone has a blood clot or not using a urine test (Kevin Y. et al. 2013). Using a urine test doctors are able to detect if there is thrombin in the urine which is a huge factor in blood clots using nano particles (Kevin Y. et al. 2013). A blood clot is actually a build up of fibrin and fibrous protein which actually seals wounds (Kevin Y. et al. 2013). The part the makes a blood clot bad is when fibrinogen is converted into fibrin, this is caused by an enzyme called thrombin, which is what the scientist at MIT are able to detect in urine (Kevin Y. et al. 2013). I personally think this is an amazing thing and should be used because it has the potential to save many lives. Who knows what could have happened to one of my best friends if her blood clot was located in a different part of her body and was left undetected. 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131016123038.htm

                                       (Credit: Illustration: Christine Daniloff/MIT)




Works Cited  

      Kevin Y. Lin, Gabriel A. Kwong, Andrew D. Warren, David K. Wood, Sangeeta N. Bhatia. Nanoparticles that Sense Thrombin Activity as Synthetic Urinary Biomarkers of Thrombosis. ACS Nano, 2013; : 130909231146001 DOI:10.1021/nn403550c