Histopathology

The section of Histopathology at Aga Khan University Hospital's (AKUH) Clinical Laboratories has subsections of Histopathology, Ploidy and Flow Cytometric Studies, Cytogenetics, Semen Analysis and IUI and Cytopathology.    

Histopathology at AKUH:
The section serves as a referral center for the specimens received from all over Pakistan. The section regularly participates in the quality assurance programmes run by the College of American Pathologists.

What is Histopathology?
Histopathology (also called as Surgical or Anatomic Pathology) is a diagnostic tool for diagnosing tissue changes in a disease under the microscope. Common term for this examination is ‘Biopsy'. The physician may choose to take a small piece of tissue from the diseases site or organ (incision biopsy) and then proceed for further management, or may send the whole lesion or organ for histopathological examination (excision Biopsy). Rule of the thumb should be that all the material removed from a human body should be submitted for the microscopic examination, to either confirm the clinical diagnosis or diagnose the tissue lesion. The test is used for diagnosing tissue changes in different types of infections, tumours, congenital or reactive changes. 

History:
In the 1870s, Carl Ruge and his associate Johann Veit, of the University of Berlin, introduced the surgical biopsy as an essential diagnosis tool. Despite the inevitable controversies that followed. Friedrich von Esmarch, professor of surgery at Kiel and a leading military surgeon, presented forceful arguments at the German Surgical Congress of 1889 on the need to establish a microscopic diagnosis before operating in suspected cases of malignant tumors requiring extensive mutilating procedures. Shortly thereafter, the freezing microtome was introduced, and the frozen section procedure hastened the acceptance of this recommendation.

Subsections:

1. Surgical Pathology and the Pathologist
2. Special tools and techniques for Surgical Pathology at the AKUH
3. Diagnostic Cytology
4. Cytogenetics
5. Semen Analysis and Intrauterine Insemination (IUI)
   

Cinical Procedures:

• Buccal Scraping for Barr Body
• Scraping (Mouth, Pharynx, Buccal, Tongue and Visualised lesion)
• Nipple Secretion
• Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology
• Pap Smear