Page 187 - Bloedstollig en bloedingsneiging

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‘It has not been an easy task for nature to build up a fluid transportation medi- um which is able to circulate under a considerable pressure in a closed system, and which possesses the property of automatically repairing a possible leakage of the system produced by injuring the surrounding tissue. The solution of this problem is now known to be no simple one, and the circulating blood in an organism is in this respect a very complicated system in which several diffe- rent components interact in a balanced manner in order to reach this object.’
Tage Astrup (1944)1
[Re. thromboembolism] ‘The clinician finds it frustrating that nature has pro- vided a beautiful mechanism for maintaining the patency of vascular channels, yet which at any time can fail to function adequately to meet a sudden emer- gent need. Any sanitary or hydraulic engineer concerned with the constant recirculation of fluid medium through a closed conduit would recognize the necessity for some mechanism to filter and dispose of accumulated insoluble particulate matter and debris, especially when the circulating fluid comprises living formed elements, colloids, macromolecules, and crystalloids flowing in a dynamic interrelationship. What is really surprising is that this mechanism operates as well as it does, over so many years, efficiently and unobtrusively. It is only its unpredictable, sporadic and gross failure that confronts us now as an increasingly important clinical problem as infectious, nutritional, neonatal, and other diseases are progressively conquered. Thromboembolic disease is now a major threat to life and limb.’
Benjamin Alexander (1960/1)2
‘J. van Heiningen kwam van Shell en zijn legitimatie om bij het Gaubius Insti- tuut te adviseren was dat olie ook door pijpen stroomt. Hij kon dus best over bloedvaten adviseren.’
Cees Kluft (2014)3