Essay Example on Any mention of important medical advancements in the last Millennium

The discoveries made in the following years then contributed to the first blood donor service in the world opening in 1921 Yet the first recorded evidence of blood component therapy was in 1940 when Edwin Cohn developed a method of separating the blood plasma in the blood to use for world war 2 victims He and his team then went on to develop the first blood cell separator which separated blood into its components red blood cells white blood cells plasma and platelets in the 1950s http onlinelibrary wiley com doi 10 1046 j 1365 2141 2000 02139 x pdf Blood components Blood consists of a mixture of cells colloids and crystalloids which through procedures can be separated into components such as red blood cell concentrates platelet concentrate fresh frozen plasma and cryoprecipitate Each can have different uses depending on the patient receiving the components and the need for the use Apheresis These blood components are made through the hematopoietic system https www ncbi nlm nih gov pmc articles PMC3127320 Red blood cell concentrate red blood cell concentrates are packed red blood cells typically used to treat anaemic patients or patients with a severe lack of oxygen being transported around the body RBC concentrates change in the number of residual platelets plasma and additive solution but this does not influence the efficiency of the blood transfer The RCA have active constitutes of Erythrocytes which are cells that specialise at being haemoglobin carriers and so respiratory gases can be transported and exchanged around the body Erythrocytes can only survive in the blood for 21 35 days giving the blood component a strict shelf life if refrigerated https www ncbi nlm nih gov pmc articles PMC2997291 Platelet have a vital role in the body by ensuring blood has the ability to clot If the platelets count is below 10 000 µL than a transfusion may be required 

Reasons for the low platelet count are most commonly due to diseases like Immune thrombocytopenia dengue and certain types of cancer Initially to improve platelet count doctors would transfer whole blood in the patient which was first done in 1910 to help thrombocytopenia However in some cases the maximum shelf life of the platelets are only 72 hours at room temperature https www ncbi nlm nih gov pmc articles PMC2920479 Blood plasma make up 55 of the blood volume and is vital as it hold the blood cells in suspension Blood plasma has to be frozen within 8 hours after collection and the when thawed to be used cannot be frozen again The transfusion of blood plasma has been available since 1941 and was initially used as a volume replacement Now generally it is used if a person's blood has an inability to coagulate http onlinelibrary wiley com doi 10 1111 j 1365 2141 2004 04972 x full Cryoprecipitate is blood plasma with fibrinogen von Willebrand factor factor VIII factor XIII and fibronectin These clotting fibres appear when fresh frozen plasma is repeatedly frozen and thawed to get a higher concentration of these factors and so Cryoprecipitate can be used to treat conditions such as fibrinogen deficiency If frozen at 18 degrees Celsius then the shelf life can increase to a year http hospital blood co uk media 28440 160602 27456 ffp and cryoprecipitate final pdf The hemopoietic system are the series of organ that make the blood and if there is a deficiency of a component these organs replenish the cells In embryos blood cell production occurs first in the yolk sac then the liver and finally in the bone marrow Part of the system includes the hematopoietic stem cells HSC these cells cell isolated