Clarity on the diagnosis line (the devil is in the details)

The diagnosis line of a surgical pathology report obviously influences therapy and is often critical for proper initiation of same. If the word choice, phrasing, or terminology in the diagnosis is potentially ambiguous or subject to misinterpretation, this could have adverse or sometimes even disastrous consequences. Usually the potential for misinterpretation is a subtle facet of the wording and is not apparent to the pathologist. This discussion aims to help the pathologist become more aware of the types of subtle wording nuances that can be important and we hope to foster the habit of searching for and correcting such potentially troublesome nuances.