patologia
Patologia, or pathology, is a medical specialty that studies the causes and effects of diseases. It integrates clinical data with laboratory and morphological analysis to provide definitive diagnoses, guide treatment, and contribute to medical knowledge. Pathology is traditionally divided into anatomic pathology and clinical pathology. Anatomic pathology focuses on the diagnosis of disease based on the examination of tissues, organs, and whole bodies. Subfields include surgical pathology, cytopathology, and autopsy (postmortem) pathology. Clinical pathology covers laboratory medicine disciplines that analyze body fluids and cells to detect disease, such as clinical chemistry, hematology, microbiology, transfusion medicine, and molecular diagnostics. Molecular pathology and cytopathology are cross-disciplinary areas that use genetic, molecular, and cellular techniques to improve diagnosis and prognostication. Immunohistochemistry and other special stains help characterize tissue samples and identify disease processes.
The pathology workflow typically begins with specimen collection, followed by gross examination, fixation, processing, and microscopic