Frederick J. Kretzschmar, MD

Anatomic & Clinical Pathologist

Dr. Frederick J. Kretzschmar is an Anatomic & Clinical Pathologist in Greenbrae, CA with special training and skill in determining the origin, type, and severity of a disease. As an Anatomic & Clinical Pathologist, Frederick J. Kretzschmar, MD performs laboratory tests to detect and treat the causes of illnesses. Anatomic Clinical Pathology is the study of disease in bodily fluid, tissues, and organs. Significant diseases and conditions treated by Anatomic & Clinical Pathologists include diabetes and cancer. Medical tests, procedures and therapies provided by Anatomic & Clinical Pathologists include diagnostic tests on blood, urine, sputum, feces, spinal fluid, pleural fluid, and belly fluid, as well as biopsy and autopsy.

A pathologist deals with the causes and nature of disease and contributes to diagnosis, prognosis and treatment through knowledge gained by the laboratory application of the biologic, chemical and physical sciences. A pathologist uses information gathered from the microscopic examination of tissue specimens, cells and body fluids, and from clinical laboratory tests on body fluids and secretions for the diagnosis, exclusion and monitoring of disease.

Nuclear Medicine Doctor

A nuclear medicine specialist employs the properties of radioactive atoms and molecules in the diagnosis and treatment of disease and in research. Radiation detection and imaging instrument systems are used to detect disease as it changes the function and metabolism of normal cells, tissues and organs. A wide variety of diseases can be found in this way, usually before the structure of the organ involved by the disease can be seen to be abnormal by any other techniques. Early detection of coronary artery disease (including acute heart attack), early cancer detection and evaluation of the effect of tumor treatment, diagnosis of infection and inflammation anywhere in the body and early detection of blood clot in the lungs are all possible with these techniques. Unique forms of radioactive molecules can attack and kill cancer cells (e.g., lymphoma, thyroid cancer) or can relieve the severe pain of cancer that has spread to bone