Pathology

Pathology focuses on studying, diagnosing and characterizing diseases, including their causes and mechanisms, and resulting cellular and clinical changes. Pathologists are also experts in the ways cells adapt to disease processes such as necrosis, inflammation, neoplasia and wounds.

Clinical pathologists use lab analyses based on microbiology, chemistry and hematological analysis to diagnose disease. Forensic pathology is concerned with determining the cause of death. It is a subspecialty of anatomic pathology, in which organs and whole bodies are examined using gross, microscopic, molecular, chemical and immunological techniques. Other subspecialties of anatomic pathology include cytopathology, in which pathology is conducted at the cellular level, and surgical pathology, which entails examining surgical samples macroscopically and microscopically to arrive at a definitive diagnosis of disease. Pathologists may choose to specialize in the pathology of specific organs, such as skin, blood, or the oral cavity and its surrounding maxillofacial structures.

Pathologists identify illnesses or chronic conditions by analyzing bodily fluids, resected tissue and biopsies. They diagnose cancers by determining whether tissue from biopsies or surgical resections is malignant or benign and by identifying specific types of cancer cells. In recent years, pathologists have begun to use genetic analysis to determine the most effective treatment for each specific cancer. Genetic analysis, tissue analysis and autopsies are also important tools in detecting and diagnosing hereditary diseases.

To determine cause of death for medical, public health or legal purposes, forensic pathologists examine organs and perform autopsies on complete bodies. In addition to identifying disease, they assess the body’s response to gross injury, addressing questions relating to how injuries impact cells and tissues and how the body responds to injuries and repairs the damage they cause.

Pathologists were key to the development of medical laboratories and lab information systems and are involved in managing and running labs where samples of blood and other bodily fluids are analyzed and compared to previous results in order to detect early signs of illness and to monitor chronic disease.

Pathology is essential to the study of medicine, since identifying diseases and disease processes and diagnosing illnesses form the essential foundations of patient care.