| Synopsis: |
Analysis of blood and other body fluids is an essential aspect of modern medicine, enabling medical professionals to evaluate patient health, diagnose disease and monitor its progression, and assess treatment effectiveness. This thorough, wide-ranging new text provides a detailed guide to both routine tests such as cell counts, and glucose and protein levels, and highly specialized procedures involving blood (red cells, white cells, and plasma), synovial (joint) fluids, cerebrospinal fluid, urine, semen, feces, and other tissue and organ fluids. In addition to covering the principles and processes involved in numerous physical, chemical, and microscopic procedures to analyze body fluids, the text explores practical issues important for today's laboratory technicians, including quality control, quality assurance, and safety. The author also describes relevant anatomy and physiology to provide a robust understanding of the composition, formation, commonalities, distinctions, and function of various body fluids, and to clarify the connection between test results and patient health. |