Pathology is the study of disease and injury. The word pathology also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatment, the term is often used in a narrower fashion to refer to processes and tests that fall within the contemporary medical field of "general pathology", an area that includes a number of distinct but inter-related medical specialties that diagnose disease, mostly through analysis of tissue and human cell samples. Idiomatically, "a pathology" may also refer to the predicted or actual progression of particular diseases. The suffix pathy is sometimes used to indicate a state of disease in cases of both physical ailment and psychological conditions. A physician practicing pathology is called a pathologist.
Anatomical pathology (Commonwealth) or anatomic pathology (U.S.) is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the macroscopic, microscopic, biochemical, immunologic and molecular examination of organs and tissues. Over the 20th century, surgical pathology has evolved tremendously: from historical examination of whole bodies (autopsy) to a more modernized practice, centered on the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer to guide treatment decision-making in oncology. Its modern founder was the Italian scientist Giovanni Battista Morgagni from Forlì.
Forensic pathology is pathology that focuses on determining the cause of death by examining a corpse. A post mortem examination is performed by a medical examiner or forensic pathologist, usually during the investigation of criminal law cases and civil law cases in some jurisdictions. Coroners and medical examiners are also frequently asked to confirm the identity of remains.
Cytopathology is a branch of pathology that studies and diagnoses diseases on the cellular level. The discipline was founded by George Nicolas Papanicolaou in 1928. Cytopathology is generally used on samples of free cells or tissue fragments, in contrast to histopathology, which studies whole tissues. Cytopathology is frequently, less precisely, called "cytology", which means "the study of cells".
An autopsy is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death; or the exam may be performed to evaluate any disease or injury that may be present for research or educational purposes. The term necropsy is generally used for non-human animals.
A morgue or mortuary is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have customarily been refrigerated to delay decomposition.
Dissection is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause of death in humans. Less extensive dissection of plants and smaller animals preserved in a formaldehyde solution is typically carried out or demonstrated in biology and natural science classes in middle school and high school, while extensive dissections of cadavers of adults and children, both fresh and preserved are carried out by medical students in medical schools as a part of the teaching in subjects such as anatomy, pathology and forensic medicine. Consequently, dissection is typically conducted in a morgue or in an anatomy lab.
The medical examiner is an appointed official in some American jurisdictions that investigates deaths that occur under unusual or suspicious circumstances, to perform post-mortem examinations, and in some jurisdictions to initiate inquests. They are necessarily trained in pathology.
Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole-body autopsies. Neuropathologists usually work in a department of anatomic pathology, but work closely with the clinical disciplines of neurology, and neurosurgery, which often depend on neuropathology for a diagnosis. Neuropathology also relates to forensic pathology because brain disease or brain injury can be related to cause of death. Neuropathology should not be confused with neuropathy, which refers to disorders of the nerves themselves rather than the tissues. In neuropathology, the branches of the specializations of nervous system as well as the tissues come together into one field of study.
A prosector is a person with the special task of preparing a dissection for demonstration, usually in medical schools or hospitals. Many important anatomists began their careers as prosectors working for lecturers and demonstrators in anatomy and pathology.
Medical jurisprudence or legal medicine is the branch of science and medicine involving the study and application of scientific and medical knowledge to legal problems, such as inquests, and in the field of law. As modern medicine is a legal creation, regulated by the state, and medicolegal cases involving death, rape, paternity, etc. require a medical practitioner to produce evidence and appear as an expert witness, these two fields have traditionally been interdependent.
The autopsy of John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was performed at the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. The autopsy began at about 8 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on November 22, 1963—the day of Kennedy's assassination—and ended in the early morning of November 23, 1963. The choice of autopsy hospital in the Washington, D.C. area was made by his widow, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, who chose the Bethesda as President Kennedy had been a naval officer during World War II.
A Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team or DMORT is a team of experts in the fields of disaster victim identification and mortuary services. DMORTs are activated in response to large scale disasters in the United States to assist in the identification of deceased individuals and storage of the bodies pending the bodies being claimed.
Insect development during storage requires special consideration when further criminal investigation is necessary to solve a crime. Decomposition is a natural process of the body, dissipating slowly over time. This process is aided by insects, making the rate of decomposition faster. For forensic entomologists, it is important to carefully collect, preserve and analyze insects found near or on a victim. By doing that, they can provide an estimated time of death as well as the manner of death and the movement of the corpse from one site to another. The role of a forensic entomologist adjunction to the pathologist is to “collect and identify the arthropods associated with such cases and to analyze entomological data for interpreting insect evidence.”
The State Pathologist's Office is a branch of the Department of Justice in the Republic of Ireland. Its function is to provide independent expert advice on matters relating to forensic pathology and to perform post-mortem examinations in those cases where foul play is suspected. This function includes providing post-mortem reports to the relevant coroner in appropriate instances, as well as attendance at coroners' inquests and at any court proceedings arising out of the Garda investigation into a death. The office also provides advice to coroners on cases which are not the subject of a criminal investigation, but which nevertheless give rise to complex questions of forensic pathology.
Yehuda Hiss is a retired Israeli pathologist. He served as the Chief Pathologist at the Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine between 1988 and possibly as late as 2005. Hiss has also served as part of the faculty for the Terrorism and Medicine Program at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) at IDC Herzliya and in the Department of Pathology for the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University.
Vincent Joseph Martin Di Maio was an American pathologist and an expert on the subject of gunshot wounds. Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was a board-certified anatomic, clinical and forensic pathologist, and a private forensic pathology consultant.
A pathologists’ assistant (PA) is a physician extender whose expertise lies in gross examination of surgical specimens as well as performing forensic, medicolegal, and hospital autopsies.
Werner Uri Spitz was a German-American forensic pathologist who worked on a number of high-profile cases, including the investigations of the assassinations of president John F. Kennedy and reverend Martin Luther King Jr. He also testified at the trials of Casey Anthony and Phil Spector, the 1996 civil trial against O. J. Simpson, and consulted on the investigation of JonBenét Ramsey's 1996 death.
A digital autopsy is a non-invasive autopsy in which digital imaging technology, such as with computerized tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans, is used to develop three-dimensional images for a virtual exploration of a human body.
