Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation - Causes - Causes

DIC is caused by another medical condition that makes the body’s normal blood clotting process become overactive. The condition progresses through two stages. In the early stages, overactive clotting leads to blood clots throughout the blood vessels. The clots can reduce or block blood flow, damaging organs.

As DIC progresses, the overactive clotting uses up platelets and clotting factors, which are proteins that help with normal blood clotting. Without these platelets and clotting factors, DIC can cause bleeding just beneath the skin, in the nose or mouth, or deep inside the body.

Causes of DIC include:

• inflammation in response to infection, injury, or an illness
• Severe tissue damage, such as from burns or trauma
• Clotting factors caused by some cancers or pregnancy complications. Pregnancy complications that produce clotting factors include placental abruption, in which the placenta separates from the uterus, and amniotic fluid embolism, in which amniotic fluid that surrounds the unborn baby enters the mother’s bloodstream.

To understand DIC, it helps to understand the body’s normal blood clotting process. Learn more about how blood clots form.