Pathophysiology: The Biologic Basis for Disease in Adults and Children 8th Edition

Book Preface

Pathophysiology incorporates basic, translational, and clinical research to advance understandings of disease and dysfunction. The study of pathophysiology involves many biomedical sciences and a wide range of research activities. Multiple aspects of cellular physiology are progressing rapidly, generating vast amounts of data to understand. The information expansion involves a greater understanding of the behavior of individual cells, their neighboring microenvironment, and the molecules that not only make up those cells but also communicate with their surroundings. Importantly, the forward movement of biomedical sciences occurs within the context of social, economic, and political processes that determine how disease is defined, experienced, and treated.
Interdisciplinary research has led to significant advancements in genetics, epigenetics, cell signaling and communication, control of cell behavior, metabolism, and cell fate. Knowledge about normal cell structures, function, and signaling pathways is at the forefront of translational science and foundational to the understanding of pathophysiology. Cells are nimble and respond to changes in their environment. Advancements in tools to observe cells are providing new understanding of cellular processes, including how cells function and prioritize their activities, monitor their environment, move, differentiate, and regenerate. For disease, conditions of cells under stress—for example, when stem cells become corrupted—help to define restorative activities that are lost. An important emerging goal is to learn what biologic switches restore function and reprogram the cell for normal function. Advances in the molecular mechanisms of disease, particularly cell signaling, genetic directives, and immune and metabolic modulators are providing an understanding of individual differences in disease risk, biologic markers, diagnostic strategies, and personally tailored treatment.
Although these advancements have created an ever-increasing state of excitement, they have also created the problem of how students, teachers, and clinicians can cope with the expanding new information. Translating and compressing these data into simplified discussions for students and clinicians is challenging. Our approach in this book has been to present an organized, logical sequence of content based on current literature and research reports with understandable explanations and accompanied by illustrations and summary tables. The primary focus is on pathophysiology, and there is less emphasis on the evaluation and treatment that is found in clinical management textbooks. As in previous editions, the following is a list of our specific goals for the textbook:

• Draw attention to differences in etiology, epidemiology, pathophysiology, clinical manifestations, and treatment according to sex and age.
• Pay careful attention to presentations of emerging new data on controversial topics.
• Integrate health promotion and disease prevention by updating risk factors, explaining certain relationships between nutrition and disease, and referencing screening recommendations and other therapeutic approaches.

Organization and Content: What’s New in the Eighth Edition

The book is organized into two parts. Part One presents the cellular and tissue responses common to disease. Normal organ system structure and function and the pathophysiology of disease, organized by body systems, are presented in Part Two. All content has been reviewed and updated with extensive new references, revised figures, and one new chapter.