Treatment
The only effective treatment is the reversal of the underlying cause. Anticoagulants are given exceedingly rarely when thrombus formation is likely to lead to imminent death (such as in coronary artery thrombosis or cerebrovascular thrombosis). Platelets may be transfused if counts are less than 5,000-10,000/mm3 and massive hemorrhage is occurring, and fresh frozen plasma may be administered in an attempt to replenish coagulation factors and anti-thrombotic factors, although these are only temporizing measures and may result in the increased development of thrombosis.
DIC results in lower fibrinogen levels (as it has all been converted to fibrin), and this can be tested for in the hospital lab. A more specific test is for "fibrin split products" (FSPs) or "fibrin degradation products" (FDPs) which are produced when fibrin undergoes degradation when blood clots are dissolved by fibrinolysis.
In some situations, infusion with antithrombin may be necessary.
Read more about this topic: Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“The treatment of the incident of the assault upon the sailors of the Baltimore is so conciliatory and friendly that I am of the opinion that there is a good prospect that the differences growing out of that serious affair can now be adjusted upon terms satisfactory to this Government by the usual methods and without special powers from Congress.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)
“James’s great gift, of course, was his ability to tell a plot in shimmering detail with such delicacy of treatment and such fine aloofness—that is, reluctance to engage in any direct grappling with what, in the play or story, had actually “taken place”Mthat his listeners often did not, in the end, know what had, to put it in another way, “gone on.””
—James Thurber (1894–1961)
“The motion picture made in Hollywood, if it is to create art at all, must do so within such strangling limitations of subject and treatment that it is a blind wonder it ever achieves any distinction beyond the purely mechanical slickness of a glass and chromium bathroom.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)