title: Nonlesions, misdiagnoses, missed diagnoses, and other interpretive challenges in fish histopathology studies: a guide for investigators, authors, reviewers, and readers.
abstract: Differentiating salient histopathologic changes from normal anatomic features or tissue artifacts can be decidedly challenging, especially for the novice fish pathologist. As a consequence, findings of questionable accuracy may be reported inadvertently, and the potential negative impacts of publishing inaccurate histopathologic interpretations are not always fully appreciated. The objectives of this article are to illustrate a number of specific morphologic findings in commonly examined fish tissues (e.g., gills, liver, kidney, and gonads) that are frequently either misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed, and to address related issues involving the interpretation of histopathologic data. To enhance the utility of this article as a guide, photomicrographs of normal and abnormal specimens are presented. General recommendations for generating and publishing results from histopathology studies are additionally provided. It is hoped that the furnished information will be a useful resource for manuscript generation, by helping authors, reviewers, and readers to critically assess fish histopathologic data.
authors.affiliation: Experimental Pathology Laboratories, Inc., Sterling, Virginia, USA jwolf@epl-inc.com.
authors.forename: Jeffrey C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Wolf
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathobiology/Population Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Mississippi, USA.
authors.forename: Wes A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Baumgartner
authors.affiliation: U.S. Geological Survey, Kearneysville, West Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Vicki S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Blazer
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.
authors.forename: Alvin C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Camus
authors.affiliation: Experimental Pathology Laboratories, Inc., Camarillo, California, USA.
authors.forename: Jeffery A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Engelhardt
authors.affiliation: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory, Gulf Ecology Division, Gulf Breeze, Florida, USA.
authors.forename: John W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Fournie
authors.affiliation: Connecticut Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory, Department of Pathobiology and Veterinary Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Salvatore
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Frasca
authors.affiliation: Aquatic Diagnostic Services, Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Groman
authors.affiliation: Departments Microbiology & Biomedical Sciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Michael L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Kent
authors.affiliation: Mississippi State University, College of Veterinary Medicine, Stoneville, Mississippi, USA.
authors.forename: Lester H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Khoo
authors.affiliation: Aquatic Ecotoxicology, North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: Jerry M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Law
authors.affiliation: Divisions of Comparative Pathology and Veterinary Medical Research Department of Veterinary Medicine, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS), Bangkok, Thailand.
authors.forename: Eric D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Lombardini
authors.affiliation: Bayer HealthCare AG, Wuppertal, Germany.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ruehl-Fehlert
authors.affiliation: Centre for Fish and Wildlife Health, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Helmut E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Segner
authors.affiliation: Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Fish Disease Research Group, Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon, USA.
authors.forename: Jan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Spitsbergen
authors.affiliation: AnaPath GmbH, Oberbuchsiten, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Weber
authors.affiliation: Experimental Pathology Laboratories, Inc., Sterling, Virginia, USA.
authors.forename: Marilyn J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Wolfe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005393:Fish Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*; D005399:Fishes; D005880:Gills / Q000473:pathology; D007668:Kidney / Q000473:pathology; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D012015:Reference Standards; D016707:Tissue Fixation
keywords: artifacts; diagnostic accuracy; fish histopathology; misdiagnosis.; nonlesions; tissue fixation