🚀 go-pugleaf

Colleagues,

I have recently been receiving mail regarding the classifications I have for 
pathologists on my Web Site. I am posting my understanding of these here and 
welcome comments from you all. IN principle when I trained some 15 years ago I 
was given to understand that the following were the major classifications. 
THis classification I believe applies equally to the medical and veterinary 
pathologist:

A. Anatomic Pathology to include:
	
1. Histopathology-examining tissue generally taken following post mortem and 
where possible establish cause of death. Somes also refered as a 
morphopathologist.

2. Sugical pathology-looking at biopsy material or tissue submitted by 
surgeons.
3. Cytopathology-looking at principally isolated cells smears e.g like 
cytological smears. 

B. Clinical Pathology

1. Haematology-(Haematopathology)-assessing blood 
2. Chemical Pathology (Clinical biochemistry)- looking at body fluids and their 
chemical constituents. Specila markers may be used.

Note: Recent mailings to me have suggested that Chemical Pathology is not a 
sub-classification of Clinical Pathology. I beg to differ with this as my 
understanding has been that the term clinical pathology comprised of the above 
two disciplines. I saw logic in it as in the first instance the requests for 
both Haematology and Chemical Pathology are triggered by a clinician. 

Toxicopathologist

The art of determining pathology related to noxious substances in the 
environment, drugs administered to man, or new chemical entitiestested in 
animals. A toxicopathologist will use any or all of the above disciplines to 
arrive at his/her conclusion.

Forensic Pathology
	
The art of determining the cause of death and its relationship if any to a 
criminal activity. A forensic pathologist will look at data, whenever possible, 
supplied from all of the previously defined disciplines. 

Recent advances in technology has led to further specialised pathology 
individuals and amongst these I include:

Immunopathologists-understanding the immune system and its relationship to 
disease processes.

Oral and Maxillo-facial pathologists- primarily dental surgeons specialising in 
the pathology of the face and neck.

Molecular Pathologists-primarily looking at molecular basis of disease and 
within this I include the EM specialists.

I may be wrong in my interpretation but this is the classification I am 
following at the moment. Cooments/debate on this is welcome. In the event I 
have missed a specialised group please excuse my ignorance.



Anil
-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Anil K Dhiri, DVM, MBiol, CBiol, MBA 
PathIT� Pathology Online Webservice
Pathology Beyond 2000
Pisces Design & Consultancy             
http://www.pathit.com    
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~