Dermatopathology and Diagnostics

Dermatopathology is a subspecialty of both pathology and dermatology in which adequate clinical info is essential to a valid tissue diagnosis. Dermatopathology is a subspecialty of anatomic pathology that emphases on the skin and the rest of the integumentary system as an organ. It is unique, in that there are two paths a physician can take to obtain the specialization. All general pathologists and general dermatologists train in the pathology of the skin, so the term dermatopathologist denotes either of these who has reached a certainly level accreditation and experience. Dermatologists are able to recognize most skin diseases based on their appearances, anatomic distributions, and behavior. Sometimes, however, those criteria do not lead to a conclusive diagnosis, and a skin biopsy is taken to be examined under the microscope using usual histological tests. In some cases, additional specialized testing needs to be performed on biopsies, including immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, electronmicroscopy, flow cytometry, and molecular-pathologic analysis.