Definition

1. Noun:
   • A rare hereditary blood disorder: Thrombasthenia is a medical term for a rare, inherited condition. It is characterized by a defect in the blood platelets (thrombocytes), which prevents them from clumping together (aggregating) properly to form a blood clot. This failure results in a tendency for prolonged or excessive bleeding (hemorrhage).

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • The patient was diagnosed with thrombasthenia after experiencing recurrent nosebleeds and easy bruising.
  • Thrombasthenia is caused by a deficiency or dysfunction of a specific protein on the surface of platelets.
  • Management of thrombasthenia often involves avoiding medications that affect platelet function and may require platelet transfusions before surgery.

Advanced Usage

• Glanzmann thrombasthenia: This is the full and specific name for the disorder. It is an eponym, named after the Swiss pediatrician Eduard Glanzmann who first described it.
  • Glanzmann thrombasthenia is the most severe form of this inherited platelet disorder.

Variants and Related Words

• Thrombasthenic (adj): Relating to or affected by thrombasthenia.
  • The thrombasthenic patient required special care during dental procedures.

Synonyms

• Glanzmann's disease: An alternative name for the same condition.
• Platelet function disorder: A broader category of conditions that includes thrombasthenia.

Noun

1. a rare autosomal recessive disease in which the platelets do not produce clots in the normal way and hemorrhage results