Pathology

The Department of Pathology of Yueyang Hospital of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Affiliated with Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, was established in 1990. It currently has 15 staff members, including 7 diagnostic physicians (2 with senior professional titles, 4 with intermediate professional titles, and 1 with a junior professional title) and 8 technicians (1 with a senior professional title, 2 with intermediate professional titles, and 5 with junior professional titles). Among them, 2 members serve as committee members in the Pathology Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, the Pathologists Branch of the Shanghai Medical Association, the Pathology Branch of the Shanghai Medical Association, and the Shanghai Clinical Pathology Quality Control Center, respectively.

The Department of Pathology has advanced and comprehensive equipment, including a complete set of routine pathological specimen preparation and diagnostic equipment. It is equipped with a multi-head microscope, fully automatic tissue processor, cryostat, frozen-section staining machine, fully automatic integrated staining and coverslipping machine, fully automatic immunohistochemistry instrument (4 platforms), DNA ploidy analyzer, automatic single-cell image analysis and separation instrument, fluorescence in situ hybridization instrument, fluorescence microscope, and automatic scanner, among others. More than 130 types of commonly used immunohistochemical antibodies are available, providing strong technical support for clinical diagnosis.

The Department of Pathology comprises the pathological diagnosis group, routine specimen preparation group, immunohistochemistry group, cytology group, and molecular pathology diagnosis group. Technical services include routine paraffin sectioning, frozen sectioning, special staining, immunohistochemical/immunocytochemical staining, liquid-based thin-layer cytology, fine-needle aspiration, cellular DNA quantitative analysis, and fluorescence in situ hybridization. The annual volume of external examinations continues to increase. In 2023, the department completed 22,000 cases of histopathological diagnosis, more than 2,000 intraoperative rapid frozen-section preparations, 13,000 cases of gynecological and nongynecological cytopathology, 63,000 immunohistochemical-stained slides, 14,000 specially stained slides, and more than 600 molecular pathology tests. The types of specimens examined are extensive, forming a comprehensive pathology department focused on breast pathology, thoracic pathology, head and neck pathology, and gastrointestinal pathology.

Every year, the department passes the interlaboratory quality-control assessments organized by the National Pathology Quality Control Center, the Shanghai Center for Clinical Laboratory Medicine, and the Shanghai Pathology Quality Control Center. The department’s technical staff actively participate in academic activities and exchanges nationwide and in Shanghai, and have won awards several times in specialized skills competitions held nationally and in Shanghai.

The Department of Pathology participates in teaching the theoretical and experimental courses of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine; each year, it undertakes teaching and supervision for Shanghai Health Medical College. At present, the department’s clinical and research work advance in parallel. The department has obtained 2 National Natural Science Foundation of China grants and 3 grant projects from the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission. More than ten high-quality academic papers have been published. Over the past 5 years, the department as a whole has published 26 papers in domestic and international journals (including 9 SCI papers) and submitted 4 papers to the National Pathology Annual Conference.

The Department of Pathology will continue to carry forward the hard-working spirit of generations of “pathology professionals,” and, as always, maintain rapid, steady, and sustained development in medical care, education, and research; firmly uphold the “lifeline” of pathological diagnosis quality; standardize pathological diagnosis procedures; provide patients with accurate pathological diagnoses; and deliver comprehensive precision diagnosis and treatment services.