Thrombosis is the formation of a blood clot or thrombus within a blood vessel. It occurs through the interaction of platelets, clotting factors, and altered blood flow. Predisposing factors include injury to blood vessels, stasis or turbulence of blood flow, and hypercoagulability. The clotting process involves platelet adhesion and aggregation at the site of injury, activation of clotting factors, and conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin. Thrombi can cause downstream effects such as ischemia, infarction, embolism, or disseminated intravascular coagulation depending on their location within arteries or veins.