Bryan Knowles

Defining Hemophilia and Normal Hemostasis Hemophilia (sometimes spelled haemophilia) is an inherited bleeding disorder characterized by impaired blood clot formation due to deficiency or dysfunction of specific coagulation factors. Under normal circumstances, hemostasis is a tightly regulated process involving platelet adhesion and aggregation followed by activation of the coagulation cascade, culminating in fibrin clot formation. In hemophilia, this cascade is disrupted, leading to delayed...

From Signs and Senses to Early “Lab Thinking” in the Ancient World It all started with peepee. What we now call medical laboratory science began long before there were laboratories. In the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world (think ancient Mesopotamia), clinicians depended on careful observation of body fluids, especially urine, because it could be inspected without cutting the body open. Written traditions describe urine inspection as an organized diagnostic practice very early in...

What is Phlebotomy? The history of phlebotomy stretches back thousands of years, beginning with ancient civilizations that believed removing blood could restore balance to the body. In medieval Europe, the practice became deeply tied to humoral theory, which held that illness resulted from imbalances among four bodily fluids, also called humors. Bloodletting was considered a standard treatment for everything from fevers to mental disorders, and it was often performed by...