Pathology

 

Pathology is the branch of medicine concerned with determining the nature and course of diseases by analyzing body tissues and fluids. Pathology is divided into anatomic and clinical pathology. Anatomic pathologists perform autopsies and analyze tissues taken from patients during surgery or by biopsy. Clinical pathologists contribute to the diagnosis of disease by measuring chemicals and cells in blood, sputum, bone marrow, and urine.

 

As knowledge of human biochemistry and metabolism proliferated in the 20^th century, many more laboratory tests were devised to distinguish normal states from disease states. Among the important tests are: the measurement, by machine, of chemicals such as sodium, potassium, urea, and glucose in the blood; the similarly automated counting of various types of cells in the blood; and the determination of compounds in the urine, which can help diagnose kidney disease. Identification of the types of cells in the bone marrow and blood contributes to the diagnosis of some types of cancer.

 

Pathologists also direct the correct use of blood for transfusions, determine suitability for transplantation of organs such as kidneys, and perform tests to identify various types of blood-clotting disorders. Microbiology laboratories, which test for the presence of pathogenic bacteria and viruses in the blood and tissues, are similarly under the direction of pathologists. In addition, they test for deficiencies in immunity. A special discipline called forensic pathology is concerned with analyzing medical evidence in crimes.

 

 

Rudolf Virchow 1821 – 1902

German pathologist, archaeologist and anthropologist, the founder of cellular pathology. Virchow was born in Schivelbein, Pomerania (now Swidwin, Poland), and educated at the University of Berlin. In 1843 he became prosector (dissector of bodies) at the Charité Hospital in Berlin, and in 1847 a university lecturer. In 1849 he was invited to the medical school of Würzburg as Professor of Pathological Anatomy, having been dismissed from his Berlin posts because of revolutionary activities. In 1856 he returned to Berlin as professor and director of the university's pathological institute.

 

Virchow was the first to demonstrate that the cell theory applies to diseased tissue as well as to healthy tissue—that is, that diseased cells derive from the healthy cells of normal tissue. He did not, however, accept Louis Pasteur's germ theory of disease. He is best known for his text Cellular Pathology as Based on Histology. He also engaged in extensive research in the fields of archaeology and anthropology, producing numerous writings, among them Crania Ethnica Americana (1892). Other publications include discussions of topical political and social questions. Virchow was influential in German politics, and from 1880 to 1893 served as a Liberal in the German Reichstag, where he opposed the policies of the German chancellor, Prince Otto von Bismarck. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Pathological Institute and Museum in Berlin.

 

 

Karl Freiherr von Rokitansky 1804 – 1878

 

He established the basis for the “ Neo-Vienna Sect ”. Other physicians in the sect were Joseph Dietl, Joseph Skoda and Theodor Meynert. He was also the founder of modern pathological anatomy with Virchow. He was rector of Vienna University in 1850. Rokitansky performed more than 30.000 autopsies.

 

In the old class building of pathological anatomy at Vienna University, many valuable discoveries were made by him, such as the distinction between lobar pneumonia and bronchopneumonia, the pathology of pulmonary emphysema and cardiac diseases, acute atrophy of liver, periarteritis nodosa, canceration of gastric ulcer, spondylolisthesis and ependym cells in brain.

 

The FDC letter from Austria was sent from Salzburg to Bursa

 

             

René Théophile Hyacinthe Laënnec 1781 - 1826

He was adopted by his physician uncle at the age of eight. He studied medicine under his uncle and worked as a military surgeon during the French Revolution at the age of 14.

 

In the spring of 1801 he went to Paris to study medicine. At Charité Hospital, Laënnec studied under Corvisart, M.Bichat, Dupuytren and G.L. Bayle. He was especially interested in pathological anatomy.

 

The indirect auscultation was invented by him in about 1819. He told how the inspiration for the invention came to his mind, as follows: “ When I was treating a girl, who was suffering from some cardiac disease, I couldn’t make a diagnosis from palpation or the percussion method, because she was overweight. I hesitated to put my ear directly onto her chest, because she was a young girl. I remembered the auditory phenomena in which a scratching sound on one end of a stick can be clearly heard at the other end. I made a cylindrical tube from a piece of paper. One end of the tube was placed on her chest and I put my ear on the other end, making it possible for me to hear her heart beat. ”

 

Stethoscope is an instrument used for auscultation. That is to detect and study sounds arising within organs such as the heart, lung, and stomach prior to treatment. The stethoscope consists of a bell and diaphragm, or receiving head, connected by a Y-joint and rubber tubing to two earpieces. The sounds may also be amplified electronically.