Long power list
The long power list is a collection of diagnoses based on site and pathologic characteristics. It builds on the short power list.
Site
Bone & cartilage
General
Benign - bone:
Benign - bone tumours:
Benign - cartilage:
Malignant - bone:
- Metastatic carcinoma.
- Plasma cell neoplasm.
- Osteosarcoma.
- Ewing sarcoma.
- Giant cell tumour of bone.
Malignant - cartilage:
Unusual genetic conditions:
Femoral head
Benign:
Uncommon - benign (fracture):
- Trauma.
- Osteoporosis.
Uncommon - benign pediatric:
- Slipped femoral capital epiphysis (SFCE).
- Legg–Calvé–Perthes syndrome.
Uncommon - malignant (fracture):
Breast pathology
Benign - common:
- Normal.
- Fibrocystic change.
- Apocrine metaplasia.
- Columnar cell change.
- Fibroadenoma.
- Phyllodes tumour.
- Intraductal papilloma.
- Florid epithelial hyperplasia.
- Sclerosing adenosis.
Benign - uncommon:
- Flat epithelial atypia.
- Complex sclerosing lesion.
- Breast abscess.
- Breast with fat necrosis.
- Microglandular adenosis.
- Collagenous spherulosis.
- Lactational change.
- Diabetic mastopathy.
Non-invasive:
Invasive - epithelial:
- Invasive ductal carcinoma of the breast.
- Invasive lobular carcinoma.
- Papillary carcinoma of the breast.
- Invasive micropapillary carcinoma of the breast.
- Invasive cribriform carcinoma of the breast.
- Tubular carcinoma of the breast.
- Medullary breast carcinoma.
- Mucinous breast carcinoma.
- Metaplastic breast carcinoma.
Invasive - non-epithelial:
Invasive - salivary gland-like:
Cardiovascular pathology
General
- Thrombosis (embolism).
- Vasculitis.
- Large vessel:
- Medium vessel:
- Small vessel:
- Amyloid deposition.
- Hyperplastic arteriolosclerosis.
- Fibromuscular dysplasia.
Aorta
- Atherosclerosis.
- Aortic dissection.
- Cystic medial degeneration.
- Traumatic dissection.
- Mycotic aneurysm.
Cardiac valves
Aortic valve
Mitral valve
Tricuspid valve
Heart
Common - benign:
Uncommon - benign:
- Lipoma.
- Rhabdomyoma.
Uncommon - malignant:
Dermatopathology
Benign - non-melanocytic:
- Epidermal inclusion cyst.
- Pilar cyst.
- Steatocystoma.
- Lipoma.
- Dermatofibroma.
- Dermal scar.
- Trichoepithelioma (trichoblastoma).
- Clear cell acanthoma.
- Leiomyoma.
Benign melanocytic lesions:
- Intradermal nevus.
- Junctional nevus.
- Congenital nevus.
- Clark nevus.
- Spitz nevus.
- Pigmented spindle cell nevus of Reed.
- Blue nevus.
Inflammatory skin lesions:
- Bullous diseases:
- Interface dermatitis:
- Nodular & diffuse:
- Psoriasiform diseases:
- Panniculitis:
- Vasculitides:
Malignant:
- Basal cell carcinoma.
- Squamous cell carcinoma.
- Malignant melanoma.
- Merkel cell carcinoma.
- Dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans.
- Atypical fibroxanthoma.
- Leiomyosarcoma.
- Metastasis.
Endocrine pathology
Thyroid gland
Benign:
Benign - uncommon:
Malignant:
Malignant - uncommon:
- Papillary thyroid carcinoma columnar cell variant.
- Papillary thyroid carcinoma tall cell variant.
- Papillary thyroid carcinoma cribriform-morular variant.
- Papillary thyroid carcinoma diffuse sclerosing variant.
- Medullary thyroid carcinoma.
- Anaplastic thyroid carcinoma.
Thyroid gland - cytology
- Benign.
- Follicular lesion of undetermined significance (FLUS).
- Follicular neoplasm.
- Suspicious for malignancy.
- Malignant, e.g. papillary thyroid carcinoma.
- Nondiagnostic or unsatisfactory.
Parathyroid gland
Benign:
Malignant - rare:
Adrenal gland
Benign:
- Adrenal cortical adenoma.
- Adrenal myelolipoma.
- Hemorrhagic adrenalitis (Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome).
- Adrenal ganglioneuroma.
- Neuroblastoma - pediatric pathology.
- Tuberculosis.
Malignant:
Gastrointestinal pathology
Gastrointestinal polyp
Benign:
Pre-malignant:
Uncommon - pre-malignant:
Uncommon - benign:
Malignant:
- Adenocarcinoma.
Esophagus
Benign:
Benign - uncommon:
Tumour:
- Leiomyoma.
- Gastrointestinal stromal tumour - may be malignant.
- Granular cell tumour - may be malignant.
Malignant:
- Squamous cell carcinoma.
- Adenocarcinoma.
Stomach
Benign:
Pre-malignant:
Malignant:
- Epithelial:
- Adenocarcinoma, intestinal-type.
- Adenocarcinoma, diffuse-type.
- Metastatic carcinoma.
- Neuroendocrine tumour.
- Mesenchymal:
- GIST.
- Hematopoietic:
Duodenum
Benign:
- Normal.
- Celiac disease.
Pre-malignant:
Malignant:
Uncommon benign:
- Gastric heterotopia of the duodenum.
- Peptic ulcer disease.
- Acute duodenitis.
- Giardiasis.
- Whipple disease.
- MAI infection.
- Pseudomelanosis duodeni.
Colon/rectum
Benign:
- Normal.
- Colitis.
- Hyperplastic polyp.
- Tubular adenoma.
- Tubulovillous adenoma.
- Villous adenoma.
- Sessile serrated adenoma.
Benign - uncommon infectious:
- Pseudomembranous colitis.
- Cytomegalovirus colitis.
- Cryptosporidiosis.
- Strongyloidiasis.
- Intestinal spirochetosis.
Benign - uncommon:
- Lymphocytic colitis.
- Collagenous colitis.
- Inflammatory polyp.
- Juvenile polyp.
- Peutz-Jeghers polyp.
- Solitary rectal ulcer.
- Melanosis coli.
- Radiation colitis.
- Diversion colitis.
Tumour:
Malignant:
- Colorectal adenocarcinoma.
- Medullary carcinoma.
- Mucinous carcinoma.
- Signet ring carcinoma.
- Goblet cell carcinoid.
- Metastatic tumours.
Appendix
Benign:
- Appendicitis.
- Periappendicitis.
- Crohn's disease.
- Normal.
Benign - uncommon:
Neoplasm:
- Neuroendocrine tumour.
- Low-grade appendiceal mucinous neoplasm (LAMN).
Malignant:
- Mucinous adenocarcinoma.
- Goblet cell carcinoid.
Liver
Benign:
Benign - tumour:
- Hepatic hemangioma.
- Focal nodular hyperplasia.
- Hepatocellular adenoma.
Malignant:
- Metastatic adenocarcinoma.
- Hepatocellular carcinoma.
Uncommon benign:
- Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.
- Autoimmune hepatitis.
- Primary sclerosing cholangitis, especially in the context of UC.
- Primary biliary cirrhosis.
- Wilson's disease.
- Hereditary hemochromatosis.
- Hepatic infarct.
- Hepatitis A.
Uncommon malignant:
Gallbladder
Benign:
Uncommon - pre-malignant:
Uncommon - malignant:
Genitourinary pathology
Tumour kidney
Benign:
Malignant - common:
- Clear cell renal cell carcinoma.
- Papillary renal cell carcinoma.
- Chromophobe renal cell carcinoma.
- Urothelial carcinoma.
- Wilms tumour.
Malignant - less common:
- Collecting duct carcinoma.
- Renal tumour with Xp11.2 translocation.
- Clear cell papillary renal cell carcinoma.
- Renal medullary carcinoma.
- Renal mucinous tubular and spindle cell carcinoma.
- Mixed epithelial stromal tumour.
- Cystic nephroma.
- Metanephric adenoma.
Uncommon - benign:
Medical kidney
Prostate gland
Benign:
- Normal.
- Chronic inflammation.
- Acute inflammation.
- Benign prostatic hyperplasia (prostectomy diagnosis only).
Malignant:
- Acinar adenocarcinoma.
Uncommon - malignant:
- Ductal adenocarcinoma.
- Urothelial carcinoma.
Urinary bladder
Benign:
Pre-malignant/malignant:
- Urothelial dysplasia.
- Low grade papillary urothelial carcinoma.
- High grade papillary urothelial carcinoma.
- Flat urothelial carcinoma.
Uncommon - benign:
Urine - cytology
Common:
- Negative for malignancy.
- Urothelial carcinoma.
- Polyomavirus.
Uncommon:
Gynecologic pathology
Uterus
Benign:
- Fibroids.
- Adenomyosis.
- Atrophic endometrium.
- Uterine prolapse.
- Proliferative phase endometrium.
- Secretory phase endometrium.
- Disordered proliferative endometrium.
Pre-malignant:
- Simple endometrial hyperplasia.
- Simple endometrial hyperplasia with atypia.
- Complex endometrial hyperplasia.
- Complex endometrial hyperplasia with atypia.
Malignant:
Uncommon - benign:
- Decidua (change of pregnancy).
- Arias-Stella reaction.
Uncommon - malignant:
Cervix - cytology
Benign:
- Normal.
- Candida.
- Endometrial cells >40 years.
Benign not typically reported:
- Atrophy.
- Reactive changes.
- Squamous metaplasia.
- Tubal metaplasia.
- Endometrial cells <40 years.
Uncommon - benign:
- HSV changes.
- Trichomonas.
- Bacterial vaginosis.
- Actinomycetes.
Waffle diagnoses:
- Atypical squamous cells, cannot exclude high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (ASC-H).
- Atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASC-US).
- Atypical glandular cells (AGC).
Pre-malignant/malignant:
- LSIL.
- HSIL.
- Squamous cell carcinoma.
- Adenocarcinoma in situ.
- Endocervical.
- Endometrial.
- Other.
Ovary
Benign:
- Serous cystadenoma.
- Mucinous cystadenoma.
- Mature teratoma.
- Endometriosis.
Malignant:
- Serous carcinoma.
- Endometrioid carcinoma.
- Mucinous carcinoma.
Uncommon - malignant:
Fallopian tube
Benign:
- Paratubal cyst.
- Tubo-ovarian abscess.
- Salpingitis.
- Ectopic pregnancy.
- Adenomatoid tumour.
Malignant:
- Serous carcinoma.
Uncommon - benign:
Head and neck
General
Benign:
Malignant:
- Squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
- Nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
- HPV-associated squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.
Uncommon - malignant:
- Paraganglioma (carotid body tumour).
Salivary gland
Benign:
- Pleomorphic adenoma.
- Warthin tumour.
- Basal cell adenoma.
- Oncocytoma of the salivary gland.
- Canalicular adenoma.
Malignant:
Uncommon benign:
Uncommon malignant:
- Acinic cell carcinoma.
- Polymorphous low grade adenocarcinoma.
- Carcinoma ex pleomorphic adenoma.
- Salivary duct carcinoma.
- Hyalinizing clear cell carcinoma.
Lymph node
Benign:
- Normal/resting.
- Reactive follicular hyperplasia.
- Sinus histiocytosis.
Malignant:
- Metastasis, esp. carcinoma.
- Follicular lymphoma.
- Chronic lymphocytic leukemia/Small cell lymphoma.
- Diffuse large B cell lymphoma.
- Nodular sclerosis Hodgkin lymphoma.
- Mixed cellularity Hodgkin lymphoma.
- Nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma.
- Lymphocyte-rich Hodgkin lymphoma.
- Lymphocyte-depleted Hodgkin lymphoma.
- Marginal zone lymphoma.
Benign - uncommon:
- Castleman disease.
- Progressive transformation of germinal centers.
- Dermatopathic lymphadenopathy.
- Sarcoidosis.
- Tuberculosis.
- Cat-scratch disease.
- Rosai-Dorfman disease.
- Kimura disease.
- Toxoplasmosis.
Neuropathology
Brain
Benign:
- Epidural hemorrhage.
- Subdural hemorrhage.
- Subarachnoid hemorrhage.
- Intracerebral hemorrhage.
- Duret hemorrhage.
- Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy.
- Multiple sclerosis.
- Colloid cyst.
- Cerebral amyloid angiopathy.
Pediatric - tumour:
Adult - tumour:
- Meningioma.
- Schwannoma.
- Diffuse astrocytoma.
- Anaplastic astrocytoma.
- Glioblastoma.
- Myxopapillary ependymoma.
- Pituitary adenoma.
- Adamantinomatous craniopharyngioma.
- Papillary craniopharyngioma.
Neurodegenerative
Muscle
Pulmonary pathology
Benign:
- Normal.
- Acute bronchopneumonia.
- Diffuse alveolar damage - acute phase, organizing phase, resolution.
- Emphysema - centrilobular, panlobular.
- Asthma.
- Aspiration pneumonia.
Malignant:
Uncommon - granulomatous:
- Tuberculosis.
- Sarcoidosis.
- Fungal infections (e.g. aspergillosis).
Uncommon - benign other:
- Solitary fibrous tumour - esp. pleural.
- Lymphangioleiomyomatosis.
- Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis.
- Bronchogenic cyst.
- Congenital pulmonary airway malformation (CPAM).
- Extralobar sequestration.
- Intralobar sequestration.
- Asbestosis.
- Silicosis
- Coal worker's pneumonconiosis.
- Pulmonary alveolar proteinosis.
- Eosinophilic pneumonia.
- Goodpasture disease.
- Wegener's granulomatosis.
- Radiation pneumonitis.
- Drug toxicity, e.g. amiodarone, bleomycin.
- Infectious - blastomycosis, cryptococcosis, histoplasmosis, pneumocystis pneumonia.
Uncommon - vascular:
- Pulmonary hypertension.
- Vasculitides - see cardiovascular section.
Uncommon - idiopathic interstitial pneumonias:
- Usual interstitial pneumonia (UIP).
- Non-specific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP).
- Lymphocytic interstitial pneumonia (LIP).
- Cryptogenic organizing pneumonia (BOOP).
- Respiratory bronchiolitis-associated interstitial lung disease (RB-ILD).
- Desquamative interstitial pneumonia (DIP).
Uncommon - malignant:
Spleen
Benign:
- Trauma.
- Normal.
- Enlargement due to cirrhosis or other causes of portal hypertension.
- Mononucleosis.
Benign - rare:
Malignant - common:
Malignant - others:
Placenta
- Normal.
- Chorioamnionitis.
- Meconium.
- Placentomegaly.
- Placental infarction.
Less common:
Pathologic characteristics
Non-skin tumours with skin
- Salivary gland tumours.
- Breast tumours.
Nodule-forming lymphoma
Malignant:
- Follicular lymphoma.
- Small cell lymphoma.
- Nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma.
- Mantle cell lymphoma.
Nuclear features
Pseudostratified nuclei
Tumours that commonly have pseudostratified nuclei:
Pseudoinclusions
Cytoplasmic features
Eosinophilic cytoplasm
- Squamous cell carcinoma.
- Oncocytoma/oncocytic tumours.
- Apocrine tumours.
- Anaplastic large cell lymphoma.
Clear cytoplasm
Cells
Tumours with lymphocytes
- Seminoma.
- Acinic cell carcinoma.
- Nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
- Lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma.
- Medullary breast carcinoma.
- Thymoma.
- Lymphoma - Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin.
Giant cells
Many eosinophils
- Infection - esp. fungal.
- Drug reaction.
- Inflammatory fibroid polyp.
- Hodgkin lymphoma.
- Churg-Strauss syndrome.
- Langerhans cell histiocytosis.
- Kimura disease.
Site specific:
- Eosinophilic esophagitis.
- Eosinophilic gastritis.
- Eosinophilic colitis.
- Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis.
- Angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia (ALHE) - skin.
Red blood cell extravasation
Structures
Psammoma bodies
Myxoid lesions
Architecture
Classically nested
Stroma rich tumours
- Cholangiocarcinoma.
- Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma.
- Mesothelioma - lung.
- Hyalinizing trabecular tumour - thyroid.
- Hyalinizing clear cell carcinoma - salivary gland.
Spindle cell lesions
Spindle cell lesions in neuropathology
Frustration lists
The following are diagnoses to think about if the answer isn't apparent.
General frustration list
If the pathology isn't apparent...
- Neurofibroma.
- Amyloidosis.
- Granular cell tumour.
- Adenomatoid tumour.
- Angiosarcoma.
- Pheochromocytoma.
- Plasma cell neoplasm.
Memory device: NAGAAPP.