The Health Nut Blog

In some instances doctors need some help in finding out the specific problems and conditions of their patients. When doctors want to be very certain about what their patients' conditions are, they take body fluid or tissue samples from them and forward these specimens to the pathology consultants.

Pathology services are a very specialized niche in the medical field.

Pathologists or pathology consultants are specialists on the determination of diseases. The patients rarely see them because they stay in the laboratories. These pathology consultants also have a medical degree and are actual doctors in their own right. Their role has just been to become the "doctor of doctors" as they assist in determining the precise condition of the patients.

Through the samples that are handed to them for analysis, the pathologists or pathology consultants can determine whether the patient is sick or not. If he is sick, the pathology consultants can go further to detect what kind of disease does he have and how extensive the disease already is.

Pathologists can be working in the hospitals or in separate laboratories of their own. Aside from anatomical and clinical pathology, which are the two main branches of their profession, the pathologists can also work in the forensics field.

What is the difference between anatomical pathology and clinical pathology? How do we differentiate between the two of them?

Well, to put it simply, anatomical pathology is involved with the diagnosis of a disease based on the inspection and analysis of various organs, tissues, and whole bodies. Clinical pathology, on the other hand, is examines bodily fluids like blood and urine.

A medical doctor won't be able to properly treat his patient if he does not know for sure what his patient's illness is. This is why the role of pathology consultants is very important in process of treating patients.

# posted by NeilG @ 6:49 AM