Talk:Coagulation

As a non-biologist, what this article doesn't tell me is how exposure to air makes platelets stick together, which is perhaps what coagulation is all about.

What it needs is something like "when factor blah on the surface of the platelet or in the blood comes into contact with air/oxygen/nitrogen/knives/blunt_objects is it suppressed/enhanced/confused/enlightened which triggers the cycle". I'm guessing that all these factors are also expressed on the surface of the platelet? Or are they inside? A chatty intro to the subject before the factor X does whatever to factor XI would help. - (unsigned)

We recognize the problem that different audiences require different presentations. We haven't quite worked out if separate articles are needed or if it can all be included in one place.

In the meantime, though: exposure to air doesn't make platelets stick together, exposure to collagen does. Collagen is found in the connective tissue that is found outside of blood vessels.

Primary clot formation has three basic steps

• Platelets aren't normally exposed to collagen: when they are exposed to it (for example, when a blood vessel is cut), they stick to it: that's platelet adhesion
• The platelets then secrete the chemicals they store: that's granule release
• The granule's contents enable fibrinogen to link between platelets (platelet aggregation)

That's primary hemostasis. Coagulation (secondary hemostasis) happens after that, as a way of firming up the initial clot through the formation of thrombin, which converts fibrinogen to fibrin. - Nunh-huh 02:19, 26 May 2004 (UTC)

I know the wikipedia's not a dictionary; but I still feel it's important not to suggest to a user who stumbles onto the page that coagulation is a technical term. Clearly it is in a medical context; but it's also just a plain old word in the English language. Hence the little disclaimer I added at the top of the page. I also specified that the article is about human blood, since it makes reference to specific clotting factors, genetic diseases, etc. I assume that the coagulation of blood in other animals follows a similar process — indeed, I'd bet my shirt on it — but I feel a little weird adding my own uninformed assumptions to a medical article so I'll just put this sentence here, which was once the last sentence of my disclaimer: The blood of other animals clots in similar ways. Please, somebody who can actually say this based on personal knowledge, add it back in again! Doops 21:43, 30 May 2004 (UTC)

title

it appears to me that this page is improperly titled. i suggest:

1) we make coagulation a disambig page with links to human blood coag as well as other types of coag like eggs + chinese food.

2) we move the material on this page to Coagulation of human blood.

Thoughts? Ungtss 16:42, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I'm more in favour of coagulation (disambiguation). Blood coagulation is by far the most important form. JFW | T@lk 23:11, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

HEY, WHAT ABOUT CONSENSUS FOR A MOVE? JFW | T@lk 23:19, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I've reversed your move (which affects 100s of links). If you are unhappy with the present results, please allow a bit more time for consensus. JFW | T@lk 23:26, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

apologies. since the bold title in the intro already said coagulation of human blood, i thought it was an intuitive move. sorry i jumped the gun. Ungtss 23:40, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Can you agree to the present arrangement? JFW | T@lk 01:11, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

It certainly seems less intuitive to me than the other, but the present arrangement is clearly very important to you, and it certainly does no harm -- I'll agree. Ungtss 01:17, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

disclaimers

Since the moving of this article from the specific "coagulation of human blood" to the general "coagulation" it has become important to include disclaimers and disambiguations. Two thoughts about these:

• I was under the impression that all editorial comments which are not really part of an article but serve as aids-to-readers are italicized. That would seem sensible, certainly.
• Mammals aren't the only blooded animals! Birds have blood — how do they clot? etc. You have to cover every possibility, leaving no cracks for a confused reader to slip through.

(In general, indeed, this article — like so many scientific ones — assumes too much of the reader.) Doops 16:48, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I agree. ideally, we'd have articles on the coagulation of many types of animal blood. in the meantime, it's important to clarify in the note at the top, in italics, that is article, tho titled coagulation generally, is quite counterintuitively only about one very specific type of coagulation, and only one type of blood coagulation. Ungtss 18:29, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Chromosomes

Would be great to have written which chromosomes code for different factors. --Eleassar777 13:49, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Follow the links, Eleassar. When I wrote all the articles, I put the chromosome data there. If I have the time I may do it myself. JFW | T@lk 20:13, 19 May 2005 (UTC)