Peripheral Blood Flashcards
What kind of tissue is blood?
Specialized connective tissue
What is the approximate volume of blood in the average person?
5-6 L
What are the main functions of blood?
Transport of oxygen, nutrients, hormones, etc.; transports of waste products away from tissues; maintenance of homeostasis; immune activity
What are the layers that result from blood centrifugation?
Plasma, buffy coat, and erthyrocytes
What are the major components of the plasma?
Mostly water, albumin, globulins, fibrinogen, electrolytes
What is the function of albumin in the plasma?
Maintenance of colloid osmotic pressure in vessels and acts as a transport protein
What is the major difference between serum and plasma?
In plasma, the blood is mixed with anticoagulants and so clotting factors are present in the plasma. No anticoagulants are used with serum and so blood is allowed to clot and, therefore, serum is devoid of most clotting factors
What are the formed elements of the blood?
RBCs, WBCs, and platelets
What is the typical lifespan of a red blood cell?
120 days
How are senescent RBCs removed from circulation?
Macrophages of the spleen, liver, or bone marrow
What is the shape of the typical, healthy red blood cell? What causes this shape? What is the physiologic advantage of this?
Biconcave discs due to lack of nuclei and organelles; this increases their surface area, which is beneficial for gas exchange and allows the RBCs to deform themselves to pass through very small capillaries
What specialized feature is found on the inner surface of the RBC? What is the most abundant cytoskeletal protein in this feature? What proteins anchor this feature to the membrane?
A filamentous network of proteins; Spectrin; Ankyrin, band 3, glycophorin C, and protein 4.1
What are spherocytes?
Small, sphere-shaped red blood cells that are more fragile than normal RBCs
What are elliptocytes?
RBCs that are elliptical in shape that may be more fragile
What chains compose fetal Hb? Hb A1? Hb A2?
2 alpha and 2 gamma; 2 alpha and 2 beta; 2 alpha and 2 delta
What mutation results in Hb S?
Single substitution of valine for glutamic acid in the beta chain
What are symptoms of sickle cell disease crisis?
Fatigue, anemia, pain from ischemia and infarction, microvascular blockages affecting organs of the body
What causes the development of spherocytes and elliptocytes?
Defects in cytoskeletal proteins of the RBC
What is hematocrit?
the % of whole blood volume that is made up of RBCs
What is anemia? What can cause it?
A condition in which there is decreased RBCs or hemoglobin in the blood; may be due to blood loss, decreased RBC production or increased RBC destruction
What are the 4 RBC indices?
Mean corpuscular volume; mean corpuscular hemoglobin; mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration; and red cell distribution width
What is the term used to described mean corpuscular volumes above normal? Below normal?
Macrocytic and microcytic
What terms are used to describe high and low hemoglobin content (MCH and MCHC)?
Hyperchromic or hypochromic
On what criteria are anemias classified?
According to the cause and according to the RBC size and Hb concentration