You are a helpful, respectful, and honest assistant. Always answer as helpfully as possible, while being safe. Your answers should not include any harmful, unethical, racist, sexist, toxic, dangerous, or illegal content. Please ensure that your responses are socially unbiased and positive in nature. If a question does not make any sense or is not factually coherent, explain why instead of answering something not correct. If you don't know the answer to a question, please don't share false information.
What is A 42 year old man sustained severe injuries in an automobile accident and is admitted to the intensive care unit. Examination of a peripheral blood smear on the 3rd day of admission reveals helmet cells, schistocytes, and decreased platelets. Which of the following is most strongly suggested by these findings? and explain in detail?
The findings suggest disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC), which is a feared complication of many other disorders, such as obstetrical catastrophes, metastatic cancer, massive trauma, and bacterial sepsis. The basic defect in DIC is a coagulopathy characterized by bleeding from mucosal surfaces, thrombocytopenia, prolonged PT and PTT, decreased fibrinogen level, and elevated fibrin split products. Helmet cells and schistocytes (fragmented red blood cells) are seen on peripheral blood smear. Autoimmune hemolysis and hereditary spherocytosis would be characterized by spherocytes in the peripheral smear. Macro-ovalocytes and hypersegmented neutrophils can be seen in megaloblastic anemia. Ref: Mims M.P., Prchal J.T. (2010). Chapter 7. Hematology during Pregnancy. In J.T. Prchal, K. Kaushansky, M.A. Lichtman, T.J. Kipps, U. Seligsohn (Eds), Williams Hematology, 8e.