Dermatopathology

Dermatopathology is the microscopic study of human skin in health and disease. Whilst some skin diseases can be diagnosed on purely clinical grounds, many require confirmation from histological study of skin biopsy samples. Trainees in both dermatology and pathology must learn dermatopathology as part of their specialist training. Whilst there are a number of large reference works, these are not suitable for the trainee as they assume too much knowledge. The book will be well illustrated (as this is a very visual subject) and will be didactic in nature as it aims to teach the skills of pattern recognition and to explain how the visible features in a histological slide correlate to disease. Section one explains the structure and function of normal human skin from the anatomical point of view. Section two covers techniques of obtaining the biopsy sample and preparing the histological slide, staining and fixing the specimen etc. Section three goes through all the definitions of each type of microscopic feature such as hyperkeratosis, exocytosis, pleomorphism etc clearly pointing out the relevant points on a histological slide. Section four goes through each skin disease and shows how the key diagnostic features can be identified in order to confirm a diagnosis.

Dr Donald MacDonald, formerly Department of Dermatology, St Thomas and Guy's Hospital, London

Dr Mohamed Ben-Gashir, Histopathology Department, University College London, London

Dr Alistair Robson, Department of Dermatopathology, St Thomas Hospital, London