What is dermatopathology?

Dermatopathology is the study of cutaneous diseases at a microscopic level, which also involves studying potential causes of skin, nail or hair disorders at the cellular level. It is a subspecialty of dermatology and surgical pathology

Many dermatopathologists are trained as dermatologists.

Because the skin is on the surface of the body, many dermatologists are able to recognize and diagnose skin disorders based on appearance, anatomic distribution or behavior. However, these diagnoses are occasionally inconclusive, which then raises the necessity of a skin biopsy. A biopsy may reveal the histology of the disease at a cellular or molecular level and may aid in diagnosis. Further testing may be performed on biopsies, including immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, electron microscopy, flow cytometry and molecular-pathologic analysis. These tests fall under the category of dermatopathology.

There are more than 1,500 disorders of the skin, ranging from rashes to cancers. Accordingly, dermatopathology is a broad field that requires dermatopathologists to work with a variety of different physicians and specialists, including pediatricians. Dermatopathologists also must be familiar with a number of medical specialties. They must synthesize the information given to them from other members of the clinical community with the information they receive from microscopic observation, and then make a diagnosis.

Additional information about dermatopathology may be found at these websites:

http://www.asdp.org/Home.htm

http://journals.lww.com/amjdermatopathology/pages/default.aspx

http://www.intsocdermpath.org/