haematology

Haematology is the branch of medicine focused on the investigation, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases of the blood and blood-forming tissues. It encompasses red cells, white cells, platelets, plasma, coagulation factors, and bone marrow. Clinicians evaluate disorders of blood production, blood cell turnover, and hemostasis, and often collaborate with transfusion medicine, oncology, and pediatrics.

Common diagnostic tools include the complete blood count and peripheral blood smear, iron studies and ferritin, reticulocyte count, and coagulation tests such as prothrombin time and activated partial thromboplastin time. Bone marrow examination and advanced laboratory methods—flow cytometry, cytogenetics, molecular diagnostics, and coagulation factor assays—are used to characterize diseases.

Typical disorders include anemia (iron-deficiency, megaloblastic, sickle cell, thalassemias), thrombocytopenia and thrombocytosis, and inherited or acquired bleeding or clotting disorders such as hemophilia and von Willebrand disease. Hematologic cancers—leukemias, lymphomas, myeloma—and disorders of immune and blood cell production such as myelodysplastic syndromes are managed by haematologists.

Treatments include transfusion of red cells or platelets, iron or vitamin supplementation, erythropoiesis-stimulating agents, anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs, chemotherapy and targeted therapies, monoclonal antibodies, and stem cell transplantation.

Haematology is practiced in hospital departments and specialized centers, with professionals including haematologists, transfusion medicine physicians, clinical laboratory scientists, and researchers. The field evolves with advances in genomics and precision medicine, improving diagnosis, risk stratification, and therapy.