Histopathology, which involves examination of intact tissue from biopsy or surgery under the microscope.There are two main subdivisions within anatomic pathology: Therefore, some knowledge of this branch of medicine may help you better understand the tests that your or a family member’s health practitioner may consider in diagnosing, monitoring, and treating a condition. Overlaps include, for example, flow cytometry, cytogenetics and molecular pathology, which can be performed on both tissue samples and blood or body fluid samples. In fact, technical advances are blurring the distinctions between the two in many areas. While most of the tests described on this site would be categorized as clinical pathology, many are used in conjunction with anatomic pathology procedures. In fact, in most hospitals, all tissue removed during surgery must be examined by a pathologist.Īnatomic pathology is somewhat different from clinical pathology (or laboratory medicine), which deals with the measurement of chemical constituents of blood and other body fluids (clinical chemistry), analysis of blood cells (hematology), and identification of microbes (microbiology), to name a few examples. Although one of the frequent uses of anatomic pathology is to help identify and manage various types of tumors or cancers, it is also valuable in evaluating other conditions, including kidney and liver diseases, autoimmune disorders, and infections, for example. The primary role of anatomic pathology is to identify abnormalities that can help to diagnose disease and manage treatment. Anatomic (or anatomical) pathology is the branch of medicine that studies the effect of disease on the structure of body organs, both as a whole (grossly) and microscopically.