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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- From roadside bombs to freeway crashes, traumatic injury is the leading cause of death for people age 4 to 44. Blood loss during trauma often overwhelms the body's natural blood-clotting process.
Case Western Reserve University biomedical engineering researchers Erin Lavik and James P. Bertram have developed synthetic platelets that combine with the bodys own natural platelets to halt internal and external bleeding in about half the normal time.
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Lavik and Bertram were inspired by studies showing there are few treatment options for soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq who suffer internal injuries. They wanted to develop a treatment medics can use in the field.
"The military has been phenomenal at developing technology to halt bleeding, but the technology has been effective only on external or compressible injuries," Lavik was quoted as saying. "This could be a complement to current therapies."
Blood platelets are the structural and chemical foundation of blood clotting, a complex cascade of events that works well with normal cuts and scrapes but can be overwhelmed by serious injury.
Using donor platelets can enhance clotting but carries the risk of complications. Donor platelets must be refrigerated, and they have a very short shelf life.
Bertram and Lavik developed platelets made from biodegradable polymers. The synthetic platelets are designed to link up with natural platelets at the site of an injury. The natural platelets, activated by injury, emit chemicals that bind natural platelets and the additional synthetics into a larger clot that quickly stems the bleeding.
Rat models injected with synthetic platelets prior to injury stopped bleeding in half the time of untreated models. Untreated models injected 20 seconds after injury stopped bleeding in 23 percent less time than models left untreated.
SOURCE: Science Translational Medicine, December 15, 2009
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