Southern Illinois University
HISTO HOME
ERG Index
GI Index

ENDO Index

REPRO Index
RESOURCE CENTER

Liver Biopsy

Notes

A needle biopsy (or punch biopsy) removes a slender core of tissue, as seen in the inset.  In this specimen, cirrhosis is indicated by the presence of extensive masses and strands of connective tissue, which in turn suggests a history of chronic liver damage.  (Cirrhosis is a non-specific descriptive term, equivalent to "sclerosis," "fibrosis," or simply "scarring.")

(A biopsy specimen represents a very small sample of an organ and must thus be interpreted with care to avoid mistaking an unusual sample for a pathological condition.)  

For more informative images of cirrhosis, see WebPath or Milikowski & Berman's Color Atlas of Basic Histopathology, pp. 284ff.


Related examples:

Liver

Comments and questions: dgking@siu.edu

SIUC / School of Medicine / Anatomy / David King

https://histology.siu.edu/erg/GI177b.htm
Last updated:  14 May 2022 / dgk