Pathology - general explanation

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Pathology is a branch of medicine that studies the nature and cause of diseases; specifically, in the context of small animal referral practice, a veterinary pathologist will examine samples, such as fluid or fine needle aspirates from body cavities or small masses, or 'biopsies', which are larger samples of tissues taken from a patient. A fine needle aspirate may be obtained with the animal conscious or with light sedation or local anaesthesia - such procedures generally cause minimal discomfort. Biopsies require general anaesthesia (or very occasionally, in the case of skin or other superficial biopsies in a very co-operative patient, local anaesthesia) to obtain tissue samples.

The tissues sampled may be abnormal tissues, such as growths, some of which may be cancerous, removed from the skin or elsewhere in the body, for the purposes of diagnosis and prognosis (assessment of the tumour type, and according to the tumour type and grade, the likely outcome (i.e surgical cure, or the possible need for additional surgery or other treatment to cure the disease or prolong life). Other types of samples taken from the patient for the pathologist to examine might include biopsies from organs, such as the bowel or the liver, or even the skin, which is also an organ, to diagnose any possible disease process underlying your pet's illness or condition. Such information is very important to the veterinary clinician in charge of your pets care, in order to give the patient the most appropriate and effective treatment available.

The tissue is placed in a fixative, to preserve it, and is then closely examined in the laboratory, representative areas are then processed to paraffin wax in a tissue processor. Once the tissue is embedded in wax, very fine sections (3 to 6 um, or 3/1000 of a mm thick) are cut by skilled technicians, adhered to glass slides and then stained with vital dyes that allow a very fine section of the tissue to be examined under the microscope by a pathologist. A veterinary pathologist is also a veterinarian, like your clinician, who has undergone additional training to examine such samples; the pathologist will write a report for your vet describing any macroscopic (visible to the naked eye) or microscopic lesions that are present, and giving a diagnosis and comments, usually with information that will assist the clinician in the management of your pets condition.

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