Podiatric Pathology
One of the areas we specialize in is podiatric medicine, where we issue reports on a variety of specimens from the lower limbs including but not limited to: Bone, cysts, tumors, skin, soft tissue, nails, and foreign bodies. Our board certified pathologist’s reports assist in the treatment of degenerative issues, malignancies, fungus of the nail and skin, tendonitis, verrucae, or any other diseases.
For the diagnosis of onychomycosis and fungal studies, we utilize a KOH and PAS (Periodic Acid-Schiff) stain; this procedure tags the glycogen present in fungi and yeast. The traditional method of doing C & S Cultures shows that the microbiological method of swabbing the surface of the nail often results in a large percentage of false negatives (Journal of the APMA, Vol. 95 Number 3 258-263 2005). This is because the organisms are frequently within the nail substance and not on its surface. On the other hand, the KOH/PAS Stain process that we use tags the organisms that are within the nail. The positive yield is increased when the specimen is taken from obvious lesions and/or near the skin corner.
Our fungal biopsy reports on mycotic nails or skin are to demonstrate specifically the presence or absence of fungi, bacteria or yeast. The pathology report that provides identification of fungi is one of the requirements for many insurance companies in the treatment of mycotic nails. Clinical documentation and evidence is then available for your patients’ records.
