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Hematologist, a medical doctor, a specialist in the field of blood and hematopoietic diseases. Its tasks include the detection of diseases related to the formation of individual blood components and, for example, blood clotting. Hematology is considered an interdisciplinary field of medicine because a hematologist should have a broad knowledge, including areas of medical science such as immunology (the field of medicine dealing with the functioning of the immune system), transfusionology (the discipline dealing with the problems of collecting and storing blood) and serology (the field of dealing with the relationship between antigens and antibodies, which allows the diagnosis of numerous diseases based on the analysis of blood composition).
What diseases can a hematologist diagnose?
Irregularities related to the hematopoietic system i blood they are often symptoms of other medical conditions, such as anemia or cancer. Doctor hematologist first of all, he orders a basic or extended blood count and, on the basis of its results, concludes which disease he is most likely dealing with. For a proper diagnosis, it is necessary to measure the individual blood components. Based on the morphology, you can determine the number of red blood cells, i.e. erythrocytes (RBC), the number of white blood cells – leukocytes (WBC) and the level of hematocrit (HCT), the concentration of hemoglobin (HGB) and the percentage of individual types of leukocytes. The morphology also allows the calculation of the mean erythrocyte volume (MCV) and mean erythrocyte hemoglobin concentration (MCH), as well as the concentration of hemoglobin in the total erythrocyte mass (MCHC). The morphology also allows you to determine the number of monocytes (MONO), thrombocytes (PLT), neutrophils (NEUT), eosinophils (EOZ) and basophils (BASO).
Then the doctor hematologist may order a more detailed one blood tests such as blur (which allows you to confirm or rule out bacterial, viral or fungal infections, infectious diseases, bone marrow disorders and hypothyroidism), blood biochemistry (which is used to determine the composition of blood plasma and test the level of creatinine, urea, glucose, electrolytes, bilirubin and amylase), bone marrow biopsy or lymph node biopsy, and finally chest X-ray or ultrasound examination of the organ.
Based on these studies, the doctor hematologist can confirm or rule out diseases such as: anemia and its exact type (hemolytic, megaloblastic, plastic or Addison-Biermer anemia), various types of leukemias (acute and chronic myeloid and lymphoblastic leukemias), lymphomas such as Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, or multiple myeloma. Hematologist also diagnoses hemorrhagic defects (vascular, platelets, plasma – congenital and acquired) and polycythemia vera, i.e. hyperemia (too many red blood cells and other blood components, including platelets). Other diseases detected by the haematologist include, for example, leukopenia, essential thrombocythemia, thrombophilia (increased blood clotting), agranulocytosis, systemic mastocytosis, and myelofibrosis. These are diseases related to abnormalities at a given stage of the formation of individual blood or plasma components.
Cooperation of the hematologist with other specialists and methods of treatment
In some cases, such as anemia and iron deficiency, the doctor will hematologist may request a consultation with a doctor of another specialty, in the above case a gynecologist (iron deficiency in women may be associated with too heavy menstruation and too much blood loss). When cancer of the blood or bone marrow is detected, therapy is required cooperation of the hematologist with doctors specializing in oncology. If you need a bone marrow transplant, your doctor hematologist cooperates with transplant doctors. He also supervises blood transfusions in people with hemorrhagic disorders, which requires knowledge and cooperation in the field of transfusion medicine. Sometimes a doctor hematologist must cooperate with the dentist – this is the case, for example, in the case of tooth extraction in a patient with impaired blood clotting, for example due to hemophilia or other bleeding disorders. The same happens in the case of surgery in this type of patient – a doctor hematologist then he cooperates with the surgical team.