Pathology is the branch of medicine which is involved in understanding the cause and processes of disease. It does this by looking at changes in the tissues of the body and in blood and other body fluids. Some of these changes show the causes, while others reflect the severity of the disease and are used to follow the effects of treatment.
Pathologists are specialist medical practitioners working in the field of pathology. Their role is to carry out tests on various tissues including blood, body secretions and samples of tissue taken at surgery or as a part of a medical examination, in order to understand what is causing an illness.
Some pathologists see patients and may be involved directly in the delivery of care.
Currently pathology has nine major areas of activity. These relate to either the methods used or the types of disease which they investigate. These are
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