Platelets - where are they found

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reising1

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What part of the blood are platelets found in? Are they in the blood plasma or the buffy coat or what?
 
What part of the blood are platelets found in? Are they in the blood plasma or the buffy coat or what?

if you're centrifuging the blood then yes it's the Buffy coat. if you're talking in a living person, then it's in the plasma. physiologically there is no buffy coat, it's just what you get after you spin whole blood in addition to reds and plasma.

interesting observation. if you spin whole blood to separate the reds from plasma, the plasma looks just like beer because it's kind of dark gold and foamy. saw that when i donated a double red last week.
 
If you centrifuge blood, the plasma later by definition lacks formed elements, which platelets are, so they can't be in the plasma, and they don't contribute to the hematocrit. Ergo...
 
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interesting observation. if you spin whole blood to separate the reds from plasma, the plasma looks just like beer because it's kind of dark gold and foamy. saw that when i donated a double red last week.

That's funny ... when I was in a surgery round a couple of months ago, I asked one of the residents why the pee was beside the bed. he said,,, umm that's not pee those are the platelets.. :idea: lol
 
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