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Using a Bacterial Pathogen to Probe for Cellular and Organismic-level Host Responses
Published on: February 22, 2019
[Pathology of infectious diseases]
Daniel Turek1, Anne Graber1, Ronny Nienhold1
1Institut für Pathologie des Kantonsspitals Basel-Land, Liestal.
Insights
Pathology of infectious diseases aids in rapid diagnosis and pathogen characterization by analyzing inflammatory patterns and detecting pathogens. Advanced techniques like molecular pathology enhance sensitivity and specificity for complex cases.
Area of Science:
- Interdisciplinary medical research
- Infectious disease pathology
Background:
- Infectious disease pathology is an underappreciated field compared to tumor diagnostics.
- Pathology excels at correlating inflammatory patterns with pathogen detection.
Purpose of the Study:
- To highlight the critical role of pathology in diagnosing and characterizing infectious diseases.
- To emphasize the increasing importance of pathology in managing complex infectious diseases.
Main Methods:
- Tissue investigations for rapid disease diagnosis.
- Immunohistochemistry and molecular pathology for pathogen characterization.
- Molecular analysis for detecting difficult-to-culture pathogens.
Main Results:
- Pathology enables rapid diagnosis through tissue examination.
- Immunohistochemistry and molecular pathology offer high sensitivity and specificity for pathogen identification.
- Molecular methods detect even challenging or dangerous pathogens.
Conclusions:
- Pathology is crucial for accurate infectious disease diagnosis and characterization.
- Increasing global factors necessitate a greater role for pathology in patient care.
- Close collaboration between pathologists and clinicians is vital for managing complex infections.
Abstract:
Pathology of infectious diseases Abstract. The pathology of infectious diseases is an exciting interdisciplinary field, despite its niche existence that is somewhat overshadowed by tumor diagnostics. However, the strength of pathology lies in the correlation of the inflammatory patterns and pathogen detection. Moreover, corresponding tissue investigations often allow a rapid diagnosis of the disease, and additional investigations, such as immunohistochemistry or molecular pathology, enable a rapid pathogen characterization with a high sensitivity and specificity. In addition, the molecular analysis allows the detection of pathogens that are difficult, dangerous or not at all to breed. It can be assumed that complex infectious diseases will increase due to iatrogenic interventions, migration, antibiotic resistance and climate change, and that pathology, in close cooperation with its treating colleagues, will increasingly play an important role in the care of patients.
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