This is a case based course focusing upon common cardiac and vascular specimen types encountered by a surgical pathologist. The course will emphasize practical points for the workup of cases that should be useful for the pathologist who is not an expert cardiac pathologist. The course is designed for general surgical pathologists, pathology residents and fellows.

The cases will be chosen to illustrate common categories of cardiovascular pathology encountered in surgical pathology including atherosclerosis, pulmonary hypertension, aortic aneurysms, cardiac tumors, native valve pathology, cardiac biopsies - diagnostic and therapeutic, including endomyocardial and pericardial biopsies, and prosthetic devices - an approach to handling, identification, examination and the FDA rules governing them.

Virtual slides, images and clinical histories will be posted on the USCAP website for review by pre-registrants prior to the meeting. A syllabus will be distributed to registrants at the meeting. After the meeting, all participants will receive web access to the PowerPoint presentation at the USCAP Annual Meeting along with the text portion of the syllabus.

After completing the course the participants should be familiar with the commonly encountered categories of cardiac and vascular surgical specimens, their work up and differential diagnosis.

(LAST SCHEDULED PRESENTATION) This course may be used for CME credits or SAM credits.