TY - CHAP M1 - Book, Section TI - Hematologic Principles A1 - Sivilotti, Marco L. A. A2 - Nelson, Lewis S. A2 - Howland, Mary Ann A2 - Lewin, Neal A. A2 - Smith, Silas W. A2 - Goldfrank, Lewis R. A2 - Hoffman, Robert S. PY - 2019 T2 - Goldfrank's Toxicologic Emergencies, 11e AB - Blood is rightfully considered the vital fluid, because every organ system depends on the normal function of blood. Blood delivers oxygen and other essential substances throughout the body, removes waste products of metabolism, transports hormones from their origin to site of action, signals and defends against threatened infection, promotes healing via the inflammatory response, and maintains the vascular integrity of the circulatory system through the clotting cascade. It also serves as the central compartment in classical pharmacokinetics and thereby comes into direct contact with virtually every systemic xenobiotic that acts on the organism.92 The ease and frequency with which blood is assayed, its central role in functions vital to the organism, and the ability to analyze its characteristics, at first by light microscopy and more recently with molecular techniques, have enabled a detailed understanding of blood that continues to advance the frontiers of molecular medicine. SN - PB - McGraw-Hill Education CY - New York, NY Y2 - 2024/11/05 UR - accessemergencymedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?aid=1163008530 ER -