Got blood?

This week's PBL case is quite interesting. Yesterday, as usual, I had my 8am PBL session at uni. It was pretty cold these past 2 days. Strong cold wind alert! though the sun's shining brightly in unshaded areas. This week's case is on thalassemia, which is a genetic blood disease. My FQ of the week is on Blood Groups. It is my turn to be the first to choose a topic, so I can have my pick from the 11 FQs so ku pilih yang sanang lah, hehehe.. After PBL, I went to the library to borrow some textbooks for my FQ, before heading back home. Had lunch of chicken burger and spent the afternoon doing my FQ.

Here are some interesting facts about blood groups. There are 4 major types of blood types; A, B, AB and O. Type A individuals have "A" antigens on the surface of their red blood cells, Type B have "B" antigens, Type AB have both while Type O have neither antigens. (Antigens ani substances that could cause the generation of antibodies). These antigens are found not only in blood but also in other tissues such as the saliva, pancreas, kidney and liver. Antibodies very similar to A and B are common in intestinal bacteria and possibly in the food to which newborn individuals are exposed. Thus the infants develop antibodies against antigens not present in their own cells. Type A individuals develop anti-B antibodies, type B develop anti-A antibodies, Type O develop both and Type AB develop neither. When the plasma of a Type A individual is mixed with Type B red cells, the anti-B antibodies cause the type B cells to agglutinate (clump). Knowing these properties are important especially when conducting blood transfusion.

Since I have a Type "B" blood, that means that I have "B" antigens and anti-A antibodies. I preferably receive blood from a Type "B" individual. If I were to receive blood from a Type A individual, this will produce a reaction (clumping), which can provide a danger to me. There is the increase risk of vessel occlusion (saluran darah terblock) that could lead to heart attack, allergic reactions, renal failure, etc. A Type "O" individual is a universal donor since ia nada antigens kan tadi(bulih bagi darahnya arah semua types) while Type "AB" is a universal recipient since ia ada semua antigens arah cell darah nya(bulih menerima semua types of darah). Other than that, there's the Rh blood system as well which I'm not going to go into di sini, hehe. I hope I get the facts right, hehe..

I was checking the history of blood transfusion for fun, and found some interesting facts to share here. In the pre-history of blood, it was believed that blood carried the properties of human or animal. It was believed that strong, brave animals such as bulls had strong brave blood. Therefore, when you drink that blood then you could too be brave and strong. If a person needed calming down then they would drink the blood of a gentle animal like a lamb and thus take on some of that calmness. They believe that any illnesses that people had were thought to be the curses from the gods or being possessed by evil spirits.

This idea was then rejected by Hippocrates who believed that people were made up of 4 humours; blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. He believed that Blood = courageous, hopeful and amorous, Phlegm = calm, cold and unemotional, Yellow bile = quick-tempered and bad-tempered, and Black bile = despondent, sleepless and irritable. A person will get certain illness when these humours get out of balance. The patient was given a diet which would build up the deficient humours and get them into balance again. Patients were often bled before being given the diet as it was thought that the heart was the organ of emotion and the blood the way the emotion travelled around the body - letting blood would make room for the humours to balance out.

Galen, who was the physician to 5 Roman emperors postulated that the arteries carried the blood around the body but had no idea that the heart pumped it. The first ever documented therapeutic use of blood was by an unnamed physician who suggested that Pope Innocent VIII (who had stroke and coma in 1492) "take the blood of 3 young boys" to cure him. How the blood was administered and whether the 3 boys had survived was unknown. However, the procedure did not work for the pope who died later on that year. It was only in 1628, when a physician, William Harvey, postulated that the blood is circulated around the body. Yes, he discovered circulation!

The first ever successful blood transfusions were performed in 1665 and documented by Dr Richard Lower in England. He started experimenting by transfusing blood between dogs. A couple of years later, he was able to transfuse blood from a sheep to a human, as does Jean-Baptiste of France. The first successful human to human transfusion occurred in 1818. James Blundell transfused blood from a husband to his wife by means of a syringe in the treatment of postpartum hemorrhage (excessive bleeding after birth of baby). Blundell performed 10 transfusions up to 1830, about half of which were successful. At this point, blood typing had not been developed and transfusions would be a risky endeavor.

Blood transfusion by James Blundell. Image taken from here

So that's a summary of the history of blood transfusion. Fascinating stuff, really, if you're into that kind of thing, hehehe..

I finished my FQ yesterday tarus. At night, Nabnab came over while the rest went to see the Med Revue. We watched some tv while doing some work. Today, I went to uni with Nabnab for our physio tutorial concerning blood groups. Siuk jua lah the tute tadi atu, suka ku. We only stayed for 1 hour, then keluartah kami. I went to the library to catch up on my readings and stayed there until 3pm. I was craving for nachos again, so I went to Coles to bali bahan2 kan buat karang. Ani alum ku sampai membuat, nda ku tebuka botol sos nya, haha, karas brabis! Even c Yunyun yang selalu tebuka pun nda dpt. Besuper glue kali botol atu, ish ish ish.. We had dinner tadi then buat our own stuff. Tomorrow's a public holiday here and we are planning on going to EKKA. Will post up the pics tomorrow. Stay tuned! :)

Gd night! :)

Info taken from e-blood: A brief history of blood transfusion