Introduction to HEMATOLOGY

HEMATOLOGY

DEFINITION:

it is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood.

OR

Hematology is the study of the normal and pathologic aspects of blood and blood elements.

OR

Hematology is a branch of medicine concerning the study of blood, blood-forming organs such as bone marrow, and blood-related disorders and diseases. 

OR

Hematology is the science or study of blood, blood-forming organs, and blood diseases.

 

The word "heme" comes from the Greek word for blood and "logus" for study.

Hematological tests are used to detect and diagnose diseases such as hemophilia, anemia, leukemia, sickle-cell anemia, lymphomas, and several infections.

OR

It involves treating diseases that affect the production of blood and its components.

such as blood cells, hemoglobin, blood proteins, bone marrow, platelets, blood vessels, spleen, and the mechanism of coagulation.

Such diseases might include hemophilia, blood clots (thrombus), other bleeding disorders, and blood cancers such as leukemia, multiple myeloma, and lymphoma.

The laboratory analysis of blood is frequently performed by a medical technologist or medical laboratory scientist.

Specialization

Physicians specialized in hematology are known as hematologists or haematologists. Their routine work mainly includes the care and treatment of patients with hematological diseases, although some may also work at the hematology laboratory viewing blood films and bone marrow slides under the microscope, interpreting various hematological test results and blood clotting test results. 

In some institutions, hematologists also manage the hematology laboratory. Physicians who work in hematology laboratories, and most commonly manage them, are pathologists specialized in the diagnosis of hematological diseases, referred to as hematopathologists or haematopathologists.

Hematologists and hematopathologists generally work in conjunction to formulate a diagnosis and deliver the most appropriate therapy if needed. Hematology is a distinct subspecialty of internal medicine, separate from but overlapping with the subspecialty of medical oncology. Hematologists may specialize further or have special interests, for example, in:

-treating bleeding disorders such as hemophilia and idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura

- treating hematological malignancies such as lymphoma and leukemia (cancers)

- treating hemoglobinopathies

- the science of blood transfusion and the work of a blood bank

- bone marrow and stem cell transplantation

 

NOTE:

In the medical field, hematology includes the treatment of blood disorders and malignancies, including types of hemophilia, leukemia, lymphoma, and sickle-cell anemia.

Hematology is a branch of internal medicine that deals with the physiology, pathology, etiology, diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and prevention of blood-related disorders.

Hematologists focus largely on lymphatic organs and bone marrow and may diagnose blood count irregularities or platelet irregularities.

Hematologists treat organs that are fed by blood cells, including the lymph nodes, spleen, thymus, and lymphoid tissue.