To the discovery of the parts played in disease by thrombosis and embolism we have referred above.
Should the portion of tissue deprived of its circulation be contained in an internal organ, as is so often the case where the obstruction in the artery is due to embolism, it becomes converted into what is known as an " infarction."
In more serious disease states, such as severe asthma or moderate pulmonary embolism, respiratory alkalosis may occur.
By embolism is meant the more or less sudden stoppage of a vessel by a plug of solid matter carried thither by the current of the blood; be it a little clot from the heart or, what is far more pernicious, an infective fragment from some focus of infection in the body, by which messengers new foci of infection may be scattered about the body.
Without immediate and appropriate treatment, an embolism can be fatal.
