Histopathology & Cytopathology

Cytopathology is the branch of pathology that studies and diagnoses diseases on the cellular level. It is generally used on samples of free cells or tissue fragments, in contrast to histopathology; Cytopathology is best used as one of three tools, the second and third being the physical examination and medical imaging. Cytopathology is commonly used to investigate diseases involving a wide range of body sites, often to aid in the diagnosis of cancer but also in the diagnosis of some infectious diseases and other inflammatory conditions. Cytopathology is a diagnostic technique that examines cells from various body sites to determine the cause or the nature of disease. Cytopathology tests are sometimes called smear tests because the samples may be smeared across a glass microscope slide for subsequent staining and microscopic examination.