HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
|
.jpg/58px-End-stage interstitial lung disease (honeycomb lung).jpg)
A gross lung specimen. The cut surface shows the honeycomb pattern of end-stage pulmonary fibrosis.
Anatomical pathology (Commonwealth) or Anatomic pathology (U.S.) is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the gross, microscopic, and molecular examination of organs, tissues, and cells. In many countries, physicians who practice pathology are trained in both anatomical pathology and clinical pathology, the diagnosis of disease through the laboratory analysis of bodily fluids.
Anatomical pathologists diagnose disease and gain other clinically significant information through the examination of tissues and cells. This generally involves gross and microscopic visual examination of tissues, with special stains and immunohistochemistry employed to visualize specific proteins and other substances in and around cells. More recently, anatomical pathologists have begun to employ molecular biology techniques to gain additional clinical information from these same specimens.
Contents |
The procedures used in anatomic pathology include:
This surgically removed segment of colon contains a suspicious polyp. An anatomical pathologist will look for invasive cancer and determine the extent of its spread.
Surgical pathology is the most significant and time-consuming area of practice for most anatomical pathologists. Surgical pathology involves the gross and microscopic examination of surgical specimens, as well as biopsies submitted by non-surgeons such as general internists, medical subspecialists, dermatologists, and interventional radiologists.
Cytopathology is a sub-discipline of anatomical pathology concerned with the microscopic examination of whole, individual cells obtained from smears or fine needle aspirates. Cytopathologists are trained to perform fine-needle aspirates of superficially located organs, masses, or cysts, and are often able to render an immediate diagnosis in the presence of the patient and consulting physician. In the case of screening tests such as the Papanicolaou smear, non-physician cytotechnologists are often employed to perform initial reviews, with only positive or uncertain cases examined by the pathologist. Cytopathology is a board-certifiable subspecialty in the U.S.
Molecular pathology is an emerging discipline within anatomical pathology which is focused on the use of nucleic acid-based techniques such as in-situ hybridization, reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, and nucleic acid microarrays for specialized studies of disease in tissues and cells. Molecular pathology shares some aspects of practice with both anatomic and clinical pathology, and is sometimes considered a "crossover" discipline.
General anatomical pathologists are trained in performing autopsies, which are used to determine the disease factors contributing to a person\'s death. Autopsies are important in the ongoing medical education of clinicians, and in efforts to improve and verify the quality of medical care. Dieners are non-physicians who assist pathologists in the gross dissection portion of the autopsy. Autopsies represent less than 10% of the workload of typical pathologists in the United States.Smith R D (1989). "Some characteristics of the community practice of pathology in the United States. National Manpower Survey of 1987.". Arch Pathol Lab Med 113 (12): 1335-42. PMID 2589945. However, the autopsy is central to public perceptions of the field, in part due to portrayals of pathologists on television programs such as Quincy, M.E. and Silent Witness.
Forensic pathologists receive specialized training in determining the cause of death and other legally relevant information from the bodies of persons who died in a non-medical or potentially criminal circumstances. Autopsies make up much, but not all of the work of the practicing forensic pathologist, and forensic pathologists are occasionally consulted to examine a survivor of a criminal attack. Forensic pathology is a board-certifiable sub-specialty in the U.S.
Anatomical Pathology one of the specialty training programs offered by the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA). The RCPA wikipedia article is here. To qualify as a Fellow of the RCPA in Anatomical Pathology, the candidate must complete a recognised undergraduate or postgraduate medical qualification, then complete 2 years of clinical medical experience (Internship and a general clinical residency year)as a prerequisite to selection as a training registrar. The training program is 5 years, and candidates must pass a Basic Pathological Sciences examination (usually in first year), The Part 1 examination (3rd year) and the Part 2 examination (5th year). Fellows may then continue into subspecialty training.
Anatomical Pathology (AP) is one of the specialist certificates granted by the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Other certificates related to pathology include general pathology (GP), forensic pathology, hematopathology, and neuropathology. Candidates for any of these must have completed four years of medical school and five years of residency training. After becoming certified in either AP or GP, it is common for pathologists to seek further fellowship training in a subspecialty of AP.
Anatomic Pathology (AP) is one of the two primary certifications offered by the American Board of Pathology. The other is Clinical Pathology (CP). To be certified in anatomic pathology, the trainee must complete four years of medical school followed by three years of residency training. Many US pathologists are certified in both AP and CP, which requires a total of four years of residency. After completing residency, many pathologists enroll in further years of fellowship training to gain expertise in a subspecialty of AP.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
