Jeanette Gooden Case Study 1

The components of blood described by Jenkins/ Kemnitz/ Tortora are that whole blood is composed of plasma, a watery liquid that contains dissolved substances, and formed elements, which are cells and cell fragments. Blood is about 45% formed elements and about 55% plasma. Normally more than 99% of the formed elements are red blood cells (RBC’s). Pale, colorless white blood cells (WBC’s) and platelets occupy less than 1% of the formed elements. Because they are less dense than RBC’s but denser than plasma, they form a very thin layer, called the Buffy coat, between the packed RBC’s and plasma in centrifuged blood.
The importance of a lower-than normal hematocrit is this could be a sign of disease or infection in the body. There are several reasons why the doctor would want to test and check further into a low hematocrit. The patient could be suffering from anemia, malnutrition, and nutritional deficiencies in iron, folate, vitamin B12 and vitamin B6, bleeding Leukemia, over hydration, destruction of red blood cells. The effect of a bacterial infection on the hematocrit would be none a bacterial infection would have a effect on white blood cells because when infection is involved the WBC’s will increase because they are trying to fight off the infection in the body. The hematocrit tells what the blood volume is. White blood cells have a nucleus and they are larger than RBC’s. We normally have 5,000 to 10,000 WBC’s /micro liter of blood. A high number inWBC’s is called leukocytosis and a decrease in WBC’s is called leucopenia.
Lymphocytes although they can develop in bone morrow can also mature in lymph nodes. One type can even mature to become plasma cells. Lymph nodes and plasma cells are involved I our immune systems. White blood cells can leave the blood to enter into other body tissues. When monocytes do this they are referred to as macrophages in those tissues.

The precise production of RBC’s is termed erythropoiesis. Erythropoiesis starts in the red bone