INTRODUCTION:
Pathology deals with studying various diseases and pathologists are professional doctors who interpret various specimens, monitor testing and interpret the results of tests using pathology equipments.
It is a discipline of medicine that studies the causes, origins, and characteristics of the disease. Researching and diagnosing illness, entails the investigation of tissues, organs, physiological fluids, and corpses.
Clinical pathology and anatomic pathology are the two wings of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine.
An Insight of Clinical and Anatomy Pathology
Clinical pathology is in charge of testing blood, urine, and other bodily fluids. In the divisions of clinical chemistry, hematology, microbiology, immunology, and immunohematology, together with counts for millions of laboratory tests across the nation. As per a report, there are over 1.1 medical laboratories that conduct various tests and diagnoses.
Anatomic pathology refers to the study of tissue specimens under a microscope, which at HSS includes bone, joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscle.
Assisting in the documentation of the success and failure mechanisms of reconstructive orthopedic operations such as joint arthroplasty and fracture healing enhancement. We also get consultation cases from patients and pathologists from all around the world as musculoskeletal pathologists.
Pathology is a discipline of medicine that studies the causes, origins, and characteristics of the disease. In order to research and diagnose illness, it entails the investigation of tissues, organs, physiological fluids, and corpses.
Types of pathology labs
- Hospital Labs
A laboratory is found in almost every hospital to assist the clinical services provided. At most hospitals, pathology services would encompass both anatomic (surgical pathology, cytopathology, and autopsy) and clinical (laboratory medicine). Most, if not all, inpatients and many outpatients treated by hospital-affiliated physicians require laboratory testing using pathology equipments.
- Laboratories of Reference
Private, commercial reference laboratories typically provide both high volume and specialty (high complexity and/or unusual) laboratory testing. The majority of these tests are suggested by doctors’ offices, hospitals, and other patient care institutions including nursing homes. Specialized tests that are requested only periodically or need pathology equipments for analysis are frequently performed in reference labs, which are generally located outside of healthcare institutions.
- Laboratories for public health
State and municipal health agencies often maintain public health laboratories to diagnose and protect the public from health hazards such as infectious disease outbreaks. These laboratories conduct tests with the help of pathology equipments to track the incidence of diseases that represent a public health issue in the community. These include outbreaks of foodborne or waterborne infections or the identification of rare infections.
Working Members in a Pathology Laboratory
There are many types of professional and members working in a laboratory. All the working members of the labs are provided training to use pathology equipments to carry out labs activities. Below we have shared some important key roles in a laboratory:
Anatomic pathology which encompasses surgical pathology, cytopathology, and autopsy pathology includes the following:
- Pathologists:
Physicians who have received specialized training in illness diagnosis and detection. Depending on the sorts of patients they see on a daily basis, practicing pathologists might be subspecialty or general pathologists. They are well specialised in diagnosis and analysis of tests using pathology equipments.
Some pathologists pursue a subspecialty fellowship in cytopathology, hematopathology, dermatopathology, neuropathology, neuropathology, and other areas of pathology.
- PAs (pathologists’ assistants):
Working closely with supervisory pathologists, these specialists aid with the graphic description and dissection of surgical cases and samples. PAs can also help with technical parts of intraoperative evaluation of pathology equipments such as frozen sectioning and tissue selection for research and clinical trials (tissue procurement).
- Cytotechnologists
They aid in the screening of specimens made up of tiny samples of cells rather than large sections of tissue, such as Pap smear specimens. A cytotechnologist recommends cases with aberrant cells to pathologists for assessment after screening and labeling diagnostic cells in slides. Fine needle aspirations (FNAs), washings or scrapings of cells, and other bodily fluids are also frequent cytologic specimens. They also have hands-on experience using various pathology equipments.
Clinical pathology which encompasses laboratory medicine includes the following:
- Scientists with a Ph.D. in pathology:
These individuals direct clinical laboratories to guarantee accurate and timely reporting of lab tests using pathology equipments and act as a resource for physicians in terms of result interpretation. They have receive specialized training in one or more of the categories below: Clinical chemistry, microbiology, molecular pathology, hematology, immunology, and blood banking are just a few of the specialties available.
- Technicians in the medical laboratory:
These health care professionals use laboratory testing and analysis to evaluate the presence or absence of illness in bodily fluids and other materials. No doubt, they also have highly specialized experience in using various pathology equipments in labs.
- Phlebotomists:
These medical experts are qualified to take a patient’s blood for clinical testing, transfusions, donations, or research.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, a pathology laboratory is a facility that performs tests on clinical specimens to gain information about a pathology health in order to help in illness diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
Pathology studies the origins of sickness, how it progresses, the impact of illness on cells, and the last stages of illness. Cell pathology, cell necrosis or death, wound healing, cancer development, and inflammation are just a few of the diseases that may be studied.
