Pathogenesis

Pathogenesis has two meanings. Firstly, it is the science of the development of disease changes in disease and secondly, it is a term referring specifically to the development of disease changes. Disease pathogenesis can be described in two ways:


 * Formal pathogenesis - Only the sequence of changes that occur during the development of disease is described. This is a more easily ascertainable knowledge about the disease, but because it is only a formal description of the changes, it does not provide information about the actual development of the condition. However, knowledge of the different stages of formal pathogenesis is of great importance for histopathological diagnosis.


 * Causal pathogenesis - The development of the disease is described on the basis of functional relationships, i.e. generally at the level of molecular biology. Causal pathogenesis contains much more information, on the basis of which rational considerations can be made about possible therapeutic intervention and the choice of biochemical and other markers of disease. The combination of etiology and causal pathogenesis should ideally provide complete information about the origin and development of the disease, its aetiopathogenesis.

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