So strange!
From one who actually was taking warfarin in the early years:
Little was known about the algorithm of the coagulation cascade (the process by which normal blood undergoes physiological changes resulting in a clot). However, early tests for clotting times involved taking a sample of blood in to a capillary tube and tilting it back and forth till it slowed down and then would not move (a clot). To the novice, a guess was that the viscosity (thick and thin have traditional been used to describe this phenomena since Newton?s time-low viscosity fluids like water were said to be thin, high viscosity fluids like honey were said to be thick) had changed resulting in a very thick gel-like consistancy which then dried to a crust. Remember, scientists were interested in the mystery of blood clotting several centuries before flow cytometry and all the whiz-bang stuff that a research lab has today. It wasn?t till the late ?40 with the discovery of Factor V that science really began to understand the process. By that time, many had long adopted the viscosity model and were slow to change nomenclature. Note that over 60 years later, you can hear medical profession use the term ?thin? which is used to describe viscosity, when what they are describing (coagulation) has nothing to do with viscosity. However, the convention (thick and thin) has been used for so long it has been adopted by almost everyone. Remember, the practice of medicine is considered an art not a science and therefore hardly precise.
It reminds me of the old George Carlin (RIP) bit about doctors ?Practicing medicine!?
As far as I know, they are still discovering more about how the ?cascade? works today -
Ah? the wonderful mysteries of biology.
