Pathology

Question 1

Differentiate between anatomical and clinical pathology

Answer 1

Anatomical: examine the macroscopic, microscopic, immunological and histochemical properties of organs and tissues, usually from surgical specimens
Clinical: examine the features of bodily fluids, fine needle aspiration and shave biopsy

Question 2

List the reasons for the delay in pathology reporting

Answer 2

Fixed: due to size of specimen, required analysis, and the tissue handling
Flexible: due to resources available to analyze the specimens
Reason for biopsy: urgency of return of results

Question 3

List the features of malignant neoplasm

Answer 3

Invasive growth: non-encapsulated and poorly circumscribed
Metastases
Have hemorrhage, necrosis and ulceration
Pleiomorphic: cells differ in size and shape
Nucleus: irregular contour, enlarged size, coarse clumping of chromatin, hyperchromatic nuclei, and prominent nucleoli
Increase cell nucleus to cytoplasm ratio
Mitosis: increased number and irregular
Chromosomes: aneuploidy

Question 4

List the types of cell injury

Answer 4

Reversible: tissue can heal as the amount of damage that has occurred is reversible if stressor removed
Cell death: ongoing damage leading to cell death

Question 5

Differentiate between the two forms of cell death

Answer 5

Apoptosis: is a controlled, active and energy dependent process
- have shrinkage of cell
- fragmentation of nucleus into smaller pieces
- cell membrane remains intact
- intact cell content
- no adjacent inflammation
Necrosis: is pathological cell death due to lysosomal enzymes leaking from the cell
- cell swells
- pykonesis -> karyorrhexis -> karlyosis
- disrupted plasma membrane
- enzymes leak out of cell
- associated inflammation

Question 6

The process by which there is the elimination of the cause of cell injury, removal of necrotic tissue/cells and the repair

Answer 6

Inflammation

Question 7

Differentiate between acute and chronic inflammation

Answer 7

Acute:
- stimuli for acute inflammation initiated by chemical mediators -> vasodilation and vascular leakage and edema -> leukocytes enter the interstitium
Chronic:
- have monocytes, macrophages and lymphocytes present leading to progressive injury and fibrosis

Question 8

List the 4 types of disordered growth

Answer 8

Hypertrophy: cells size increases to increase tissue size
Hyperplasia: cell number increases to increase tissue size
Atrophy: cell size/number decreases which decreases tissue size
Metaplasia: change in function of one cell type to another

Question 9

Differentiate between transudate and exudate

Answer 9

Transudate: protein poor fluid, mostly caused by fluid leaking into the interstitium due to increased hydrostatic pressure (protein <2.5g/dL)
Exudate: protein rich fluid, due to inflammation and escape of protein and cells