What is Anatomic Pathology?
Anatomic pathology is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the gross, microscopic, and molecular examination of organs, tissues, and cells. Anatomic pathologists diagnose disease and gain other clinically significant information through the examination of tissues and cells. This generally involves gross and microscopic visual examination of tissues, with special stains and immunohistochemistry employed to visualize specific proteins and other substances in and around cells. More recently, anatomic pathologists have begun to employ molecular biology techniques to gain additional clinical information from these same specimens.
