What is the Difference Between Etiology and Pathophysiology

The main difference between etiology and pathophysiology is that etiology is the study of causes, origin, and reasons of an illness or medical condition whereas pathophysiology is the study of the disordered physiological processes that cause, result from or are otherwise associated with a disease or injury. 

Etiology and pathophysiology are two types of medical study related to diseases. Most importantly, etiology is about the causes of disease while pathophysiology is about the symptoms.

Key Areas Covered

1. What is Etiology
     – Definition, Type of Study, Importance
2. What is Pathophysiology
     – Definition, Type of Study, Importance
3. What are the Similarities Between Etiology and Pathophysiology
     – Outline of Common Features
4. What is the Difference Between Etiology and Pathophysiology
     – Comparison of Key Differences

Key Terms

Causes, Diseases, Etiology, Pathophysiology, Symptoms

What is Etiology

Etiology refers to the cause, set of causes, or manner of causation of a disease or condition. Therefore, it involves the study of the initial stage of a disease and its origin. Generally, more than one factor is responsible for the occurrence of a disease in an organism. Moreover, these factors are unique to a particular type of disease. For example, the risk factors of a patient to develop Parkinson’s disease can be age, male sex, family history, genetic factors, exposure to well water, rural living–possible link to exposure to pesticides, and certain professions such as healthcare workers, farmers, teachers, etc.

Figure 1: Origin of Klinefelter Syndrome (47,XXY)

Furthermore, the main importance of etiology is that it allows the identification of the risk factors for a particular disease in a predisposed patient. It helps to prevent the occurrence of the disease.

What is Pathophysiology

Pathophysiology is the study of the disordered physiological processes that cause, result from, or are otherwise associated with a disease or injury. It is a convergence of pathology along with physiology. Generally, pathology is the medical discipline responsible for describing the conditions observed during a disease state. Also, physiology is the biological discipline responsible for describing the processes and mechanism operating in an organism. Therefore, pathophysiology describes the functional changes or the symptoms that emerge in the organism suffering from a particular disease.

Figure 2: Symptoms of Leukemia

For example, some pathophysiological conditions that occur in a patient with Parkinson’s disease include increased oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, protein aggregation, proteasomal dysfunction, etc. Therefore, the main importance of pathophysiology is that it allows curing of the disease through treating to revert the emerged changes back to the normal.

Similarities Between Etiology and Pathophysiology

• Etiology and pathophysiology are two types of studies in medicine related to diseases.
• Both are important for the prevention and curing of diseases.

Difference Between Etiology and Pathophysiology

Definition

Etiology refers to the cause, set of causes, or manner of causation of a disease or condition while pathophysiology refers to the disordered physiological processes associated with disease or injury.

Significance

Thus, the main difference between etiology and pathophysiology is that etiology studies the causes of disease while pathophysiology studies the symptoms.

Consequence

While etiology describes the initial stages of a disease process, pathophysiology describes the final stages of a disease process.

Type of Study

Moreover, etiology studies the associated factors of disease including the location, sex, exposure to chemicals, genetics, etc. while pathophysiology studies the physiological mechanisms operating within the organism with the onset of the disease. Hence, this is an important difference between etiology and pathophysiology.

Importance

Furthermore, etiology helps to prevent the occurrence of the disease in a pre-disposed patient while pathophysiology is important to cure the disease.

Conclusion

Etiology is the study of causes and the origin of a particular disease. Therefore, it describes the initial stage of the disease process. On the other hand, the pathophysiology is the study of physiological changes that occur in an organism with a particular disease. Therefore, it describes the later stages of the disease process. Thus, the main difference between etiology and pathophysiology is the type of study. However, both etiological and pathophysiological studies are important to prevent and cure disease.

References:

1. “Etiology and Pathophysiology.” Parkinson’s Toolkit, National Parkinson Foundation, Available Here.

Image Courtesy:

1. “Human chromosomesXXY01” By User:Nami-ja – Own work (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia   
2. “Symptoms of leukemia” By Mikael Häggström (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia