General and Systemic Histopathology, C601&C602
Disorders of the endocrine system are among the most challenging to diagnose, and yet the most fascinating of all medical conditions. The endocrine system is in essence a system of cellular communication, and abnormalities of one system can have ripple effects that affect many distant organ systems. I liken the whole physiological picture of the endocrine system to a three dimensional string structure known as a cat's cradle. As with the cat's cradle, when you shorten or lengthen one string the whole figure has to change to accommodate the new reality. With the endocrine system, excess or deficiencies of one hormone often leads to far reaching compensatory changes in many others. Because of this, it is sometimes difficult to tell for certain the initial or underlying problem. The endocrine system is one area in which the clinical laboratory can be extraordinarily helpful to you.
In this unit we will
focus on thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal, endocrine pancreas and the pituitary.
(Endocrine disorders of reproduction are dealt with in the reproductive unit.)
As regards the histology of endocrine glands, you may not think it is possible
to tell if there had been a state of hyper or hypo-functioning, but in fact
it is. We will be looking at histological changes in the thyroid, parathyroid
and adrenal gland that will tell us much about the level of active of these
glands. In addition to states of hyper and hypo-activity of the glands, we
will look at non-functioning benign and malignant tumors as well as combined
or multiple glandular abnormalities. There's a lot of ground to cover.
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