The Consulting Center for Perinatal and Pediatric Pathology is an institution dedicated to diagnosis and consulting of surgical specimens, biopsies, cytology studies and postmortem examinations encompassing particularly perinatal diseases and conditions affecting infants and children, with the background of the experience acquired along more than 25 years practising in these fields.
The laboratories offer an expert evaluation of perinatal (including placenta) and pediatric samples through the use of classical gross examination, microscopical analysis and the use of ancillary diagnostic procedures under circumstances warranting them. Studies may be done in fixed and frozen samples, paraffin embedded material or histologic sections performed at another laboratories.
The workfield of Perinatal and Pediatric Pathology includes studies of samples coming from fetuses, placentas, newborns, children and adolescents. This includes developmental pathology, dysmorphogenesis syndromes, pediatric tumors (which are peculiar types different from that of adults), digestive tract endoscopic biopsies, particularly celiac disease and Hirschsprung´s disease, dermatologic condtions of this age, liver disease and glomerular lesions, as well as the whole range of lesions presenting at this age.
In all the cases the common denominator is the very low frequency of the entities under consideration a fact which requieres a long time for acquiring experience.
The appropriate Pathology evaluation and accurate diagnosis of material from postmortem examinations at the perinatal age (fetuses, stillborn and neonatal deaths) is of paramount importance. Informations obtained through this procedure are extremely useful for medical purposes and particularly important for the family members since those findings aid in understanding the causes and mechanisms resulting in the perinatal death and its possible meanings for the mother and the rest of the family, as well as for future pregnancies. This procedure is widely sustained by the medical literature in the field of the specialists related to the subject. Strongly underlined is the fact that this kind of studies require training in a specific group of diseases of low frequency as well as wide knowledge of clinical-pathological correlations of conditions peculiar to this age.
The adequate examination of material coming from abortuses through a delicate evaluation and analysis results in a wealthy contribution to the understanding of the causes and mechanisms which account for the referred circumstances.
Suggestions
In order to get an adequate diagnostic interpretation material coming from fetuses and stillborn should include the follwing data.:
Clinical data (gestational age; birth weight; maternal and obstetric history) and antropometric measures (weight, length, plantar length).
Images of the whole body del including the frontal and side of the face, and of any external malformation. This may be done in a CD or by e-mail.
Whenever possible send the body or the whole en-bloc evisceration (thorax and abdomen) without dissection or sectioning, in a jar with 10% formalin.
Perform a careful extraction of the brain, wrap it in a piece of thin cloth and after securing, put it in another jar with 10% formaldehide.
Placenta: the Pathology examination of the placenta is another extremely important component in this type of analysis. So this organ should be included whenever fetuses and stillborn are to be examined.
Comment: if there is another peculiar situation different from the already mentioned above we suggest a telephone call or e-mailing to the Consulting Center.
The type of diagnostic service offered by the Consulting Center may also be of help in cases already processed and studied which still require a specialized diagnostic opinion.
Ricardo Drut.
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