Pathology

Introduction to the Department of Pathology

The Department of Pathology of Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine was established in 1975. It currently has 19 active staff members, including 10 diagnostic physicians (2 with senior professional titles, 6 with intermediate professional titles, and 2 with junior professional titles), 8 technicians (4 with intermediate professional titles and 4 with junior professional titles), and 1 clerk. Among them, 5 serve, respectively, as committee members or inspection-group members in the Pathology Professional Committee of the Chinese Medical Association, the Pathology Branch Committee of the Shanghai Medical Doctor Association, the Glomerular Disease and Renal Pathology Group of the Nephrology Branch of the Shanghai Medical Association, the Cell Group of the Shanghai Pathology Quality Control Center, and the Molecular Pathology Group of the Shanghai Pathology Quality Control Center. In 2015, 2016, and 2019, the Department of Pathology respectively received the honorary titles of “A-Level Department of Shuguang Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine” and “March 8 Red-Flag Collective of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.”

The Department of Pathology is equipped with a binocular microscope, a 10-person multi-viewing microscope, a multicolor fluorescence microscope, a fully automatic dehydrator, a fully automatic staining and coverslipping machine, a frozen-section microtome, a paraffin embedding machine, a paraffin microtome, a real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR instrument, a liquid-based cytology preparation system, a cellular DNA quantitative analysis system, a pathology quality-control and data-management information system, and other instruments and equipment; it routinely performs paraffin sectioning, frozen sectioning, histochemistry, immunohistochemistry/immunocytochemistry, immunofluorescence of renal biopsy tissue, liquid-based cytology, fine-needle puncture, cellular DNA quantitative analysis, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR. It has established multiple pathology subspecialties, including gastrointestinal pathology, liver pathology, renal pathology, lymphohematopoietic-system pathology, dermatopathology, breast pathology, gynecologic pathology, and cytopathology. Each year, it completes 50,000 histopathological diagnoses and more than 29,000 cytopathological diagnoses, with testing covering the organs of all body systems.

The Department of Pathology has successfully passed the inspections of the Shanghai Pathology Quality Control Center and ISO9001 quality-control inspections for many consecutive years; it has passed proficiency testing and interlaboratory quality assessment for specialized testing capabilities related to molecular pathology and immunohistochemistry conducted by the Pathology Quality Control Center of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, the Shanghai Pathology Quality Control Center, and the Shanghai Clinical Laboratory Center. Several technicians have won awards multiple times in specialized skills competitions held nationally or in Shanghai.

The Department of Pathology participates in teaching the theoretical and experimental courses for undergraduate and graduate students organized by the Department of Pathology of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine; each year, it undertakes rotation-based teaching and supervision for the standardized training of approximately 30 resident physicians and specialist physicians in traditional Chinese medicine clinical specialties. It collaborates with clinical departments such as the Department of Liver Disease, Department of Kidney Disease, Department of Breast Disease, and Department of Spleen and Stomach Disease to conduct multiple scientific research projects. It currently leads 1 project each under the National Natural Science Foundation and the hospital-level scientific research fund; over the past 3 years, the department as a whole has published 22 papers in domestic and international journals (including 3 SCI papers) and submitted 34 papers to the National Pathology Annual Conference.

In the future, all colleagues in the Department of Pathology will continue their efforts. While maintaining high standards and stringent requirements for diagnosis, they will intensify clinical research on disease types in which traditional Chinese medicine has advantages, and further develop and enrich the distinctive features of the discipline.