Facts about artefacts in diagnostic pathology.

ABSTRACT

Literal meaning of artefact given by 'Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary' is 'a thing made by people'. In medical science 'the fact' is not true; but we observe routinely is called artefact. We face various types of artefacts in daily reporting of pathology specimen. Many times artefacts hinder the actual diagnosis. The artefacts i. e. fixation artefact, processing artefact, staining artefact, mounting artefact, air bubbles etc. can cause difficulty in diagnosis and a pathologist should be trained to identify those artefacts.