Microbiology Update in Infectious Disease Diagnosis in Anatomic Pathology

Course overview

This chapter focuses on microorganisms that cause infectious disease, using histological examinations of stained tissue where these organisms are found. So much of this testing occurs today, using special stains to find pathogens in infected tissue, from bacteria to viral inclusions to parasites, that even though the testing itself would not be performed by microbiology personnel but most likely by histologists and histologic technicians, it would be of great interest to microbiology staff. In fact, in some instances, the presence of these organisms in stained tissue may be the gold standard for detecting infection by these organisms especially as many of them cannot be grown in culture in a routine laboratory. An example of this is the presence of H. pylori in a stomach tissue biopsy taken during an upper endoscopy from a patient with gastritis or gastric ulcers.