Pathology

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Pathologist at work

Pathology is the study and medical diagnosis of disease. A person who does this work is called a pathologist. Techniques include dissection, microscopic examination of tissues and chemical analysis of body fluids. A pathologist may also perform an autopsy, to discover the cause of death.

Pathology is a science concerned with finding the cause (etiology) or confirming the presence of a disease through careful examination of a tissue or sample of any component of the body. Pathologists are responsible for diagnosing cancer, running hospital laboratories, heading medical examiner offices and blood banks, and play an important role in the drug development process.

Pathology Media

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  Pathologists looking into microscopes (1)

• Gorman and Feeley.jpg

  The advent of the microscope was one of the major developments in the history of pathology. Here researchers at the Centers for Disease Control in 1978 examine cultures containing Legionella pneumophila, the pathogen responsible for Legionnaire's disease.

• Pathology Lab.png

  A modern pathology lab at the Services Institute of Medical Sciences

• AML-M6, multinucleated erythroblast.jpg

  A bone marrow smear from a case of erythroleukemia. The large cell in the top center is an abnormal erythroblast: it is multinucleated, with megaloblastoid nuclear chromatin. This is diagnostic of erythroleukemia.

• Melanoma.jpg

  A malignant melanoma can often be suspected from sight, but confirmation of the diagnosis or outright removal requires a biopsy.

• Cardiac amyloidosis very high mag movat.jpg

  An instance of diagnosis via histopathology, this high-magnification micrograph of a section of cardiac tissue reveals advanced cardiac amyloidosis. This sample was attained through an autopsy.

• AVM grossly.jpg

  This coronal cross-section of a brain reveals a significant arteriovenous malformation that occupies much of the parietal lobe.

• Gross pathology of miliary tuberculosis of the lung.jpg

  Gross pathology of miliary tuberculosis of the lung

• Polycystic kidneys, gross pathology CDC PHIL.png

  This tissue cross-section demonstrates the gross pathology of polycystic kidneys.