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General and Systemic Histopathology, C601&C602
     
    Slide 135: Lung with features of DIC  
     
    The best bet here is to look in the capillary sized vessles for the diagnostic changes. You're looking for thrombi composedonly of protein.  If you see what looks like thrombi with lots of RBC's in them, it's not what we're looking for. 

    See this slide with virtual microscope.

    There are two pieces of tissue on this slide, and obviously this is the lung. The pathological features are the same for both the kidney and lung. With disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), the person experiences "run away" intravascular coagulation. As you might expect, there will be small thrombi in vessels throughout the body. This becomes an ischemic disease on the cellular level. People bleed with this condition because of the breakdown of the small vessels and the consumption of the clotting agents. Causes are gram negative sepsis, massive trauma and obstetrical disasters, just to name a few. This condition never just arises out of the blue, it is always a complication of something else.


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