Clinical physiology is both an academic discipline within the medical sciences and a clinical medical specialty for

physicians A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

in the health care systems of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, Denmark and Finland. Clinical physiology is characterized as a branch of physiology that uses a functional approach to understand the pathophysiology of a disease.

Overview

As a specialty for medical doctors, clinical physiology is a diagnostic specialty in which patients are subjected to specialized tests for the functions of the heart,

blood vessels The blood vessels are the components of the circulatory system that transport blood throughout the human body. These vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to the tissues of the body. They also take waste and carbon dioxide away f ...

, lungs, kidneys and

gastrointestinal tract The gastrointestinal tract (GI tract, digestive tract, alimentary canal) is the tract or passageway of the digestive system that leads from the mouth to the anus. The GI tract contains all the major organ (biology), organs of the digestive syste ...

, and other organs. Testing methods include evaluation of electrical activity (e.g. electrocardiogram of the heart),

blood pressure Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure of circulating blood against the walls of blood vessels. Most of this pressure results from the heart pumping blood through the circulatory system. When used without qualification, the term "blood pressure" r ...

(e.g. ankle brachial pressure index), and air flow (e.g. pulmonary function testing using

spirometry Spirometry (meaning ''the measuring of breath'') is the most common of the pulmonary function tests (PFTs). It measures lung function, specifically the amount (volume) and/or speed (flow) of air that can be inhaled and exhaled. Spirometry is he ...

). In addition, Clinical Physiologists measure movements, velocities, and metabolic processes through imaging techniques such as ultrasound,

echocardiography An echocardiography, echocardiogram, cardiac echo or simply an echo, is an ultrasound of the heart. It is a type of medical imaging of the heart, using standard ultrasound or Doppler ultrasound. Echocardiography has become routinely used in t ...

magnetic resonance imaging Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to form pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes of the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and radio wave ...

(MRI), x-ray computed tomography (CT), and nuclear medicine scanners (e.g. single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and

positron emission tomography Positron emission tomography (PET) is a functional imaging technique that uses radioactive substances known as radiotracers to visualize and measure changes in Metabolism, metabolic processes, and in other physiological activities including bl ...

(PET) with and without CT or MRI).

History

The field of clinical physiology was originally founded by Professor Torgny Sjöstrand in Sweden, and it continues to make its way around the world in other hospitals and academic environments. Sjöstrand was the first to establish departments for clinical physiology separate than those of Physiology during his work at the

Karolinska Hospital The Karolinska University Hospital ( sv, Karolinska universitetssjukhuset) is a teaching hospital affiliated with Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, with two major sites in the municipalities of Solna Municipality, Solna and Huddinge. The ...

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. Along with Sjöstrand, another influential name in clinical physiology was P.K Anokhin. Anohkin heavily contributed to the branch of physiology where he worked diligently to use his theories of functional systems to solve medical mysteries amongst his patients. Clinical physiology was originally a

discipline Discipline refers to rule following behavior, to regulate, order, control and authority. It may also refer to punishment. Discipline is used to create habits, routines, and automatic mechanisms such as blind obedience. It may be inflicted on ot ...

by its own, however, between 2008 and 2015, clinical physiology was categorized as a sub-discipline to radiology. For this reason, those pursuing a career in clinical physiology had to first become registered and certified radiologists before becoming clinical physiologists. Since 2015, it is once again possible to train to be a clinical physiologist, with clinical physiology being a separate

independent of radiology.

Role

Human physiology is the study of bodily functions. Clinical physiology examinations typically involve assessment of such functions as opposed to assessment of structures and anatomy. The specialty encompasses the development of new physiological tests for medical diagnostics. Using equipments to measure, monitor and record patients proves very helpful for patients in many hospitals. Moreover, it is helpful to doctors, making it possible for patients to be diagnosed correctly. Some Clinical Physiology departments perform tests from related medical specialties including nuclear medicine, clinical neurophysiology, and radiology. In the health care systems of countries that lack this specialty, the tests performed in clinical physiology are often performed by the various organ-specific specialties in internal medicine, such as cardiology,

pulmonology Pulmonology (, , from Latin ''pulmō, -ōnis'' "lung" and the Greek suffix "study of"), pneumology (, built on Greek πνεύμων "lung") or pneumonology () is a medical specialty that deals with diseases involving the respiratory tract. ...

nephrology Nephrology (from Greek'' nephros'' "kidney", combined with the suffix ''-logy'', "the study of") is a specialty of adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (ren ...

, and others. In Australia, the United Kingdom as well as many other commonwealth and European countries, clinical physiology is not a medical specialty for physicians. It is its own non-medical health profession - scientist, physiologist or technologist - who may practice as a cardiac scientist, vascular scientist, respiratory scientist, sleep scientist or in Ophthalmic and Vision Science as an Ophthalmic Science Practitioner (UK)."Clinical Physiology."
from Griffith University. Retrieved December 2013 These professionals also aid in the diagnosis of disease and manage patients, with an emphasis on understanding physiological and pathophysiological pathways. Disciplines within clinical physiology field include audiologists, cardiac physiologists, gastro-intestinal physiologists, neurophysiologists,

respiratory physiologist In physiology, respiration is the movement of oxygen from the outside environment to the cells within tissues, and the removal of carbon dioxide in the opposite direction that's to the environment. The physiological definition of respiration di ...

s, and sleep physiologists.

References

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External links

* Scandinavian Society of Clinical Physiology and Nuclear Medicine (SSCPNM) http://www.sscpnm.com/ * The official journal of the SSCPNM: Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1475-097X Physiology Academic disciplines Medical specialties