Pathology is a significant field in modern medical diagnosis and medical research, concerned mainly with the causal study of disease, whether caused by pathogens or non-infectious physiological disorders. The word pathology itself may be used broadly to refer to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of bioscience research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatment, the term is often used more narrowly to refer to processes and tests that fall within the contemporary medical field of “general pathology,” an area that includes several distinct but inter-related medical specialties that diagnose disease, mostly through analysis of tissue, cell, and body fluid samples.