Blood platelets, or thrombocytes, adhere to the walls of blood vessels at the site of an injury and plug the cut in the vascular wall. Fibrinogen is another blood protein necessary for blood clotting. Another name for arteriosclerosis is hardening of the arteries. Blood tends to run faster around a thrombus than a clean arterial wall. This induces new platelets to stick to the thrombus more readily.
Blood clots present more imminent danger than arteriosclerosis.
When a thrombus closes an arterial wall, the result is the death of the cells that are normally fed nutrients and oxygen from that artery. There are also cases where a thrombus or blood clot can be located in one part of the body, break free, and get lodged in another part of the body. In either case, the major concerns are with the heart and brain as death is imminent in either case. It is now routinely recommended to take an aspirin tablet every day because it is an anticoagulant. This helps by thinning the blood and may reduce the clot forming process.