Pathophysiology for the health professionals

The study of pathophysiology provides a foundation of essential information for you to apply in your specialty area. It is a powerful tool to use in your care of patients who come to you with a wide variety of diseases and associated therapies. This textbook is intended to facilitate your learning, and we hope you find it both useful and interesting. Many aids to learning have been incorporated in the design of this book, and are intended to maximize your learning. So, before you begin your course, take a few moments to read the preface to acquaint yourself with the general format, guidelines for users, list of contents, and special features. Then examine the tables and illustrations found on the insides of the front and back covers, and the material in the appendices at the back of the book. Glance over the introductory material in Chapter 1 and several other chapters to check out the organization and style of presentation, the type of illustrations, the special boxes and questions. The numerous figures and charts will be helpful in developing an understanding of complex disease processes. Note that review material to refresh your memory on key points and prepare you for pathophysiology is available at the beginning of each chapter. This quick review of anatomy and physiology can save you “learning time” and moments of frustration as you move through the new information in pathophysiology. Many new scientific and medical terms will be used in this course. These are defined within the text and in the glossary. Numerous cross-references are included to help you better utilize this book and are particularly helpful if you study topics in a different order than that in the textbook. Perhaps in the practical component of your program you may find it necessary to look up a diagnosis in this textbook before you have studied the topic in class. Each chapter is quite readable prior to a A Note to Students formal lecture. The tables and flow charts illustrating disease processes provide useful summaries for you to consolidate information following lectures or for review purposes. The questions and case studies in each chapter are helpful in preparing for examinations, and you may use these as models to create specific applications in your professional field or additional questions and answers for self-evaluation (this technique is also an excellent study tool). As you proceed through this book, we suggest you note any information that you think is significant in your specialty area or is of special interest to you for any other reason. Such relationships build more links in your memory banks! Whenever possible, check the current professional journals in your area for updates, and add to your notes. Because professionals require a specific knowledge base for safe practice, it is essential to comprehend and be able to apply your course material. We hope that this textbook expedites the process and provides a stimulus to acquire additional knowledge. Additional resources are listed at the end of each chapter and in the appendices. Also available to promote productive study time are the Study Guide and the Evolve web site (found at Gould/pathophysiology/). These provide a variety of activities for review and self-evaluation developed specifically for this textbook