Bloody Minded

Come one come all to see the thinnest extended reference in the universe. Draped over not one but TWO episodes, the Bloody Minded Crew continue to make vaguely topical references to popular recent films. Look - we go outside and experience the full gamut of popular culture. Oh and we finish up our discussion of thrombophilia testing in the lab - looking this week at activated protein C resistance...

Lions and tigers and… thrombosis? Oh my! Join the Bloody Minded Crew on the yellow brick road to visit the emerald laboratory and see the wonderful wizard of clots - your friendly laboratory coagulation scientist! Put on your blood red ruby slippers and join us for this bumper lab episode as we learn about how exactly we test for Protein C, S and antithrombin deficiencies as well as lupus anticoag...

“HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN AS A HAEM REG. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANO-ANGSTROM OF THE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF CONSULT NOTES I HAVE WRITTEN IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR YOU ORDERING THROMBOPHILIA TESTING INAPPROPRIATELY.” Woah - Let’s calm down, that's a bit much. Cale and Bashar are exposed to Nick’s inner...

We're nearly out of pipes to clean - Join us for the world's worst roadtrip we venture into the lesser known parts of human plumbing and tackle unusual site thromboembolism. From splanchnic clots, uterine and testicular thrombi it's clots as far as the eye can see (and those it can't like CRVO!) Timestamps: 0:58 - ROADTRIP 4:07 - CVST 11:07 - CVST - Treatment 15:36 - Lemierre&a...

It's said that beauty is skin deep but you know what else lurks just under your epithelium - CLOTS! Nick, Cale and Bashar head very slightly under our outer layer to the peripheral vasculature in this increasing tortured metaphor as we learn on our shortest episode to date about what to do when those not so deep vessels fill with thrombus.  Timestamps 2:12 - Where are superficial veins? 5:23...

D-ismayed by D-readful D-ressing D-owns by your D-emonstrably D-eplorable registrar? . Join de Bloody Minded Crew for a Tour D-Force of D-Dimer D-rama as we D-issect and D-iscuss this most D-ifficult of D-iagnostic tests! Timestamps 2:14 - What is a D-Dimer and where does it come from? 6:57 - FXIII and D-Dimer 7:49 - Fibrinolysis and other degradation products 10:18 - D-Dimer Assays - LIA 14:22 -...

“Give me a 2cc bolus of clot stat Emma. No wait - not there!” But it was too late, and Em-Bolused the 2cc of clot straight to the lungs”. Join the Bloody Minded Crew as they get to the heart… no get to the lungs of the topic of Pulmonary Embolism. VanQuish the V/Q and CriTically aPprAise the CTPA with these acronyms that are just as bad as a cardiology trial and half as useful. Sadly the Top Gun s...

Calves, thighs, arms and more,  Clots can form inside them all! Join your hosts Cale, Bashar and Nick as they take a deep (hah) dive into the nitty-gritty things you should know about managing DVTs of the extremities TIMESTAMPS 0:54 - Intro to Extremity Clots 3:49 - Veins of the Lower Limb 5:54 - History & Exam Lower Limb 10:54 - Phlegmasias 15:52 - Investigations 21:27 - Below Knee DVTs 26:41...

Rudolf the red nosed physician Wrote a very cool triad And if you ever saw it you would even say ‘Egad!’ All of the other physicians used to laugh and call him dumb They never let poor Rudolf  join in the MDT fun Then one foggy clinic day a patient came to say  “Rudolf with your triad so smart won’t you describe to me the pathophysiology of clotting in a way that both makes sense and fits inside t...

Philip K. Dick once wrote, “Perhaps if you know you are insane then you are not insane. Or you are becoming sane, finally. Waking up.” Waking up, that is, not to the alternative history universe where the Axis won WWII but rather, to a new bonus episode on Castleman disease! Join Cale, Bashar and Nick as we explore one of Haem’s most zebra diagnoses, and do whatever we can to put off Nick’s clot s...

Have you stumbled onto the haematology ward only to discover patients on bizarrely named BiTE & CART therapy? Why are we giving patients CARTs? Do they come with a horse?  Why does everyone freak out when these patients are febrile? Why is everyone so hung up about handwriting? What are these weird drugs?  It's OK – we are here once more to demystify the acronyms – and help you know what...

Bamboozled by basophils bountiful booty of granules? Let’s begin brilliantly with a basophil based bonanza. Buckets and buckets of brazenly basophil related bonus banter. You beauty! But, beware the bawdy, boisterous boys babbling brobdignagian-ly about BASOPHILS. It sounds better if you read it in Hugo Weaving’s voice and it’s the 5th of November I swear.  TIMESTAMPS 3:07 - What are basophils?  ...

The mighty eosinophil had triumphed. The last parasitic worm lay vanquished beneath his granule-studded pseudopodia. For years, he’d battled helminthic scourge, a hero in mucus armor. But now, with no foes left to smite, he grew restless. He turned his sharp gaze to pollen, peanuts, and pet dander. "Troublemakers," he muttered, unsheathing his cytotoxic arsenal. With righteous zeal, he c...

Put on your monocles and kimonos and hop on the monorail to our episode composed of monotonous monologues, monogamously dedicated to that most monolithic and sometimes monoclonal of mononucleated cells. We are monobviously talking about the monocyte.  TIMESTAMPS 0:57 - Mono-Cyte!   2:50 - What is a monocyte?   4:20 - Monocyte subclasses   6:00 - Role of monocytes   8:10 - Causes of Monocytopenia  ...

Behold the field in which I grow my cells and see that it is barren. It’s out of the frying pan and into the aplastic fire with not a cell in sight. Join Nick, Cale and Bashar without two neutrophils to rub together as we talk about an approach to that most concerning of FBC features - pancytopenia.  TIMESTAMPS 2:22 - Definition of pancytopenia   4:23 - Spurious pancytopenia   6:04 - Cutoffs (arbi...

Once again the Bloody Minded Crew have ventured out of the lab to find and trap another haematology registrar from the wards and convince them to come back to the show and talk about cells. Join haematology registrar Dr Lise Kempler as she teaches the team about what to do when that lymphocyte number just creeps up and up and up.  TIMESTAMPS 2:34 - Aspiring to be a lymphocyte   5:44 - What are lym...

Whilst most of haematology is spent looking forlornly into the empty neutrophil cupboard like old Mother Hubbard post chemotherapy, the pendulum can also swing to the other extreme. Join us as we unpack the reactive and not-so-reactive causes of a neutrophilia so you don’t get too left-shifted on the wards. TIMESTAMPS 2:18 - Apologies to the Welsh   3:07 - Cutoffs (arbitrary as usual)   4:46 - Lef...

A lone neutrophil stands alone against a horde of gram negative bacteria. He is the last of his kind, the single granulocyte rising from the ashes of a marrow once verdant with haematopoiesis, now overrun with blasts. As the endotoxin rushes towards him, he smiles, for on the horizon he can see the glimmer of tazocin rushing through the blood vessels like Gandalf leading the Rohirrim to Helm’s Dee...

There’s a problem with billionaires at the moment. Every day, you make a hundred billion platelets. For some in our society, even that colossal quantity isn’t nearly enough. They strive ever onward for even more. Unfettered platelet production all the time forever - after all the number can only go up. But mo’ platelets leads to mo’ problems. Go on a journey with Bashar, Nick and Cale to learn how...

Are you a platelet that has been conjugated to an antibody? Sequestered in a spleen? Diluted out by too much saline? Had your precious gold stolen from you? Then you might be entitled to thrombensation! Listen to this episode to learn how we can help YOU approach thrombocytopenia. TIMESTAMPS  2:23 - Striking gold where you least expect it  4:40 - Definition of thrombocytopaenia  8:06 - What do pla...

Our half empty cup from last week has now runneth over! If having low red cells is a bad thing, then having an extremely high amount must be a good thing, right? WRONG! Join the Bloody Minded Crew  as we explore what happens when we’re on the other side of that Goldilocks zone of red cells. Remember that episode of the Simpsons where they try and force a million germs through a tiny door? It’s lik...

All that blood study making you faint, fatigued and short of breath? Well, you might be anaemic but how can we tell why? Join us on our first expedition of this season of highs and lows as we take apart the full blood count one episode at a time. Let’s start with an approach to a cup half-empty of blood - anaemia!  TIMESTAMPS 2:10 - The Motto of Haematology   3:08 - Definitions - How low is low?  ...

Learning to count is hard. Learning to count cells is harder. Luckily we've got an expert with us today to show us the basics. Welcome back to a new batch of episodes where we unpack the highs and lows of haematology and teach you what to do with those pesky out of range blood counts.  But to do that we need to know where the numbers come from. We don't know, so we asked Mitchell Rawling...

Have you been asked to call for a Haematology consult and are now considering hiding in a toilet? Never fear! You can listen to this podcast from the hospital bathroom AND learn some fantastic tips and tricks to help us help you! Dr Alison Chandler is back in the studio and we're aiming for future consults with at least 50% less crying – and that’s not just for the Haem AT carrying the consul...

Bashar was tasked with finding an expert to talk to about blood banking. He decided to cold-email the best transfusion-educator in the world who is probably responsible for hundreds if not thousands of haematology trainees understanding blood banking. Turns out he's an absolutely lovely guy who decided to spend an hour of his Monday morning chatting to us about podcasting, education, IgA defi...