CLINICAL LAB SCIENEC

6
ESSENTIALS OF CLINICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE
were experimented with as early as 1267 ce, when Roger Bacon may have produced
the first microscope (Berger, 1999).
During the first period alluded to by Berger, substantial numbers of observations
were made by physicians, including Hippocrates, who is known generally
as the “Father of Medicine” (Berger, 1999). As early as 400 bc, and as mentioned
before, urine was typically poured on the ground, and if it attracted ants,
patients were assumed to be diabetic. Sometimes a skin condition called boils
would be the first sign of diabetes. Boils are skin eruptions that heal poorly and
are caused by bacteria that use the high levels of glucose in diabetic patients.
Hippocrates basically advocated the use of the mind and senses as his primary
tools for diagnosis, and the use of the senses extended to the study of the urine
for bubbles, color, and taste, as primary laboratory tests. He also noted conditions
other than those associated with laboratory testing, such as lung sounds,
skin color, and any other outward physical signs that appeared abnormal as part
of the assessment of the patient.
Further advances from ancient medical practices were then halted for almost
a thousand years, when, in the Middle Ages, early religious figures believed that
disease was punishment for misdeeds or the result of witchcraft or demon possession.
Treatment consisted of religious practices such as prayer to a higher
being, penitence, and praying to saints. During the Middle Ages, roughly 500 to
1450 ad, few advances were made, but the widespread and continued practice
of the examination of urine persisted. However, during the latter years of the
Middle Ages, investigation of diagnostic tools and the development of equipment
again became more prevalent.
There are many notable advances in medical devices and other discoveries,
some of which affected the laboratory, during the 17th through the 20th
centuries. A few of these still bear the names of these early pioneers of medicine
who blazed a path into the era of modern medicine. The developments of individual
test methodologies are scattered throughout the past 100 years and are so
numerous as to make it impractical to list them all (Table 1-1).
Laboratory tests were developed for the diagnosis of diseases such as cholera,
typhoid fever, diphtheria, and tuberculosis and were performed by the physicians.
The knowledge of these disease entities was made possible more than
likely by the use of a microscope. A considerable period would elapse before
specific treatment, such as the use of antibiotics for these diseases, would be
available. By the 1880s, Robert Koch’s studies of microorganisms led to the culture
of pure colonies of organisms. He determined that epidemics may occur as
a result of the spread of these organisms via water, food, and clothing under the
right conditions. Many of these early discoveries greatly affected the provision
of early laboratory services.
Other Factors Contributing to Technological Development
In the 1940s through the 1960s, several researchers contributed basic information
that has led to sophisticated laboratory methods and to the possibility of specific
treatments for curing certain diseases such as cancer that previously were only
treatable through extensive surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy. A wide
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