Blood cells
Introduction
Hematopathology
is not only the study of disease of the blood and bone
marrow, but also of the organs and tissues which employ blood cells as
principal effectors of their physiologic functions. Such would include the
lymph nodes, spleen, thymus, and the many foci of lymphoid tissue found along
the aerodigestive tract. Generally two types of medical subspecialists
intensively practice in this area, the hematologist and the hematopathologist.
The hematologist usually is a Board-certified internist who has completed
additional years of training in hematology, usually as part of a combined
fellowship in hematology and oncology. The thrust of this individual's work is
toward the diagnosis and medical management of patients with hematologic
disease, especially neoplasms, and medical management of other nonhematologic
cancer. The hematopathologist, on the other hand, is usually Board-certified in
anatomic and clinical pathology and has taken additional years of training in
hematopathology. His or her principal activity is the morphologic diagnosis of
conditions of the hematopoietic and lymphocyte-rich tissues and in the
performance of laboratory testing that assists such diagnosis.
1)
many diseases are understood at the molecular level,
2) the patient's tissue is
easily obtainable in large quantities (in the case of peripheral blood, at
least) and easily kept viable for special studies, and
3) the function of the
blood (or at least the erythroid component) is relatively simple when compared
to that of other organ systems. Because it is a scientifically integrated
discipline hematology/hematopathology is an area which is intellectually
gratifying to the eclectic individual who is well-rounded in various biomedical
endeavors, including
biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, microanatomy, morphologic
diagnosis, and patient care.
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