Topic
Blood disorders
How the blood and its disorders are understood, from anemia to clotting, explained through the evidence.
This page collects every article by Dr. Damon Tojjar in this topic. For all topics see browse by topic, and for the source-anchored record see damontojjar.com/record.
Articles in this topic (11)
- Anticoagulation Basics: How the Evidence Picks the Drug
The default anticoagulant shifted because the evidence, not habit, changed the calculus. For most venous thromboembolism without cancer, guideline panels now...
- Age-Adjusted D-Dimer Cutoffs: How ADJUST-PE Changed Who Gets a Scan
The short answerThe 2014 ADJUST-PE study prospectively tested a simple rule: in patients 50 and older with a low or moderate pretest probability, use age times 10...
- JAK2 V617F: How One Mutation Became a Major Criterion for Polycythemia Vera
A single acquired mutation, JAK2 V617F, sits in more than 95 percent of polycythemia vera cases, which is why the World Health Organization ranks it as a major...
- How the Sickle Cell Guidelines Weigh Hydroxyurea and Transfusion
The American Society of Hematology 2020 guidelines on cerebrovascular disease in sickle cell disease do not simply tell clinicians what to do. Each recommendation...
- How Stroke Risk Scores Guide Anticoagulation in Atrial Fibrillation
The short answerThe 2023 atrial fibrillation (AF) guideline changed how clinicians decide who should take a blood thinner to prevent stroke. Instead of pinning that...
- How to Read an Anemia Workup Without Jumping to Conclusions
An anemia workup is best read as a set of imperfect tests that constrain one another, not as a single number that hands you a diagnosis. Ferritin, transferrin...
- What a Low Platelet Count Does and Does Not Mean
A low platelet count on a lab report is a signal that something needs explaining, not a diagnosis in itself. The American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2019...
- Reading the 4Ts Score for Heparin-Induced Thrombocytopenia: What Each Point Measures
The 4Ts score rates four features of suspected heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT), assigning 0, 1, or 2 points to each for a maximum of 8. A low total of 3 or...
- DOAC Reversal: What the ANNEXA-I Trial Actually Showed About Andexanet Alfa
ANNEXA-I, published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2024, was the first randomized trial of a factor Xa-inhibitor reversal agent in intracranial bleeding....
- Why Ferritin Cutoffs for Iron Deficiency Keep Changing
Ferritin cutoffs for iron deficiency keep changing because a single number cannot serve every population at once. A lower threshold catches fewer true cases but...
- Thrombophilia Testing: When the Workup Changes Nothing, and How to Tell
The short answerAfter a clot triggered by surgery, trauma, or a long stretch of immobility, a thrombophilia panel almost never changes what happens next. The...