Pathology Report
A pathology report is highly dependent on the quality of the biopsy that is submitted. It is not unusual to miss the diagnosis of a skin tumor or a skin biopsy due to a poorly performed or inappropriately performed skin biopsy. The clinical information provided to the pathologist will also affect the final diagnosis. An example would be a rapidly growing dome shaped tumor of the sun exposed skin. Despite doing a large wedge incision, a pathologist might call the biopsy keratin debris with characteristics of actinic keratosis. But provided with an accurate clinical information, he/she might consider the diagnosis of a well differentiated squamous cell carcinoma or keratoacanthoma. It is not infrequent for two, three or more biopsies to be performed by different doctors for the same skin condition, before the correct diagnosis is made on the final biopsy. The method, depth, and quality of clinical data will all affect the yield of a skin biopsy. For this reason, doctors specializing in skin diseases are invaluable in the diagnosis of skin cancers and difficult skin diseases. Specific stains (PAS, DIF, etc.), and certain type of sectioning (vertical and horizontal) are often requested by an astute physician to make sure that the pathologist will have all the necessary information to make a good histological diagnosis.
Read more about this topic: Skin Biopsy
Famous quotes containing the words pathology and/or report:
“It is often said that Poland is a country where there is anti-semitism and no Jews, which is pathology in its purest state.”
—Bronislaw Geremek (b. 1932)
“Men are born to write. The gardener saves every slip, and seed, and peach-stone: his vocation is to be a planter of plants. Not less does the writer attend his affair. Whatever he beholds or experiences, comes to him as a model, and sits for its picture. He counts it all nonsense that they say, that some things are undescribable. He believes that all that can be thought can be written, first or last; and he would report the Holy Ghost, or attempt it.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)