Heart, Pericardium, and Blood Vessels

This chapter presents common surgical specimens encountered in the cardiovascular pathology service in a busy tertiary hospital. The clinical entities covered include cardiomyopathies, myocarditis, valvular disease, pericardial disease, vascular pathology, and cardiac tumors. For each of these entities, salient clinical presentations, gross and microscopic features, additional stains and techniques that are helpful for diagnosis and differential diagnosis are discussed. With the availability of associated molecular basis of disease, this information is included in relevant diseases and updated at the time of printing. Due to limitation of space, intracardiac and intravascular devices and clinical imaging correlations are not covered. The reader is also referred to the chapter on soft tissue for the pathology of vascular tumors.