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In the lungs, the extra fluid accumulates into the air sacs within the lung, causing difficulties in oxygen getting into the blood. This results in low blood oxygen levels and shortness of breath. In the arms and legs, the fluid accumulates in the tissues, causing swelling. This is most prominent in the legs due to the effects of gravity.
The major tissues affected are nerves and muscles, where irreversible damage starts to occur after 4–6 hours of cessation of blood supply. [4] Skeletal muscle, the major tissue affected, is still relatively resistant to infarction compared to the heart and brain because its ability to rely on anaerobic metabolism by glycogen stored in the cells may supply the muscle tissue long enough for ...
Hypothermia can also prevent the injuries that occur after circulation returns to the brain, or what is termed reperfusion injuries. In fact, an individual suffering from an ischemic insult continues suffering injuries well after circulation is restored. In rats, it has been shown that neurons often die a full 24 hours after blood flow returns.
After a massive PE, the embolus must be resolved somehow if the patient is to survive. In thrombotic PE, the blood clot may be broken down by fibrinolysis, or it may be organized and recanalized so that a new channel forms through the clot. Blood flow is restored most rapidly in the first day or two after a PE. [101]
Shock is the state of insufficient blood flow to the tissues of the body as a result of problems with the circulatory system.Initial symptoms of shock may include weakness, tachycardia, hyperventilation, sweating, anxiety, and increased thirst. [1]
The brain sustains irreversible injury after about 20 minutes of ischemia. [4] Even after blood flow is restored to the brain, patients can experience hours-days of hypotension, hypoxemia, impaired cerebrovascular autoregulation, brain edema, fever, hyperglycemia and/or seizures which further insult brain tissue. [5]
Acute limb ischemia may also be caused by traumatic disruption of blood flow to a limb, which may present with either hard signs or soft signs of vascular injury. [15] Hard signs include pulsatile bleeding, expanding hematomas (collections of blood), or absent distal pulses, and must be taken to surgery emergently.
The abdomen, the central nervous system, and the organs (including the lungs) are typically spared, but the extravasation in the extremities is sufficiently massive to cause circulatory shock and compartment syndromes, with a dangerous hypotension (low blood pressure), hemoconcentration (thickening of the blood) and hypoalbuminemia (drop in ...