Gross Sample Description

Characteristic Colors
Color Pathologic Process
Golden yellow and hemorrhagic Renal cell carcinoma (clear type)
Orange-yellow Normal adrenal or adrenal cortical lesions
Yellow Xanthogranulomatous inflammation
Yellow Cirrhosis
Often pale or bright yellow Steroid producing tumors
Green Chloroma or any purulent exudate; Prior hemorrhage with
oxidation of blood
Black or Brown Ochronosis
Brown Endometriotic cyst
Black Melanoma, black mucosa, black
Dark blue/black Blue dome cysts of the breast
Chalky white Gout or chondrocalcinosis
White to tan Pheochromocytoma

Descriptive Terms for Fluids

Descriptive Terms Quality of Fluid
Viscous Thick
Serosanguinous Serum tinged with blood (also spelled serosanguineous)
Serous Like serum – watery
Mucinous Thick and sticky or gelatinous
Tacky Sticky (e.g. silicone gel)
Suppurative Green thick exudate
Description of Texture and Shape
Shape or Texture
Well-circumscribed or pushing borders
Irregular or speculated borders
Jagged or notched borders
Serpiginous borders (winding, snake-like)
Smoothly lobulated
Bosselated (rounded protuberances)
Verrucous (wart-like)
Papillary
Villous (slender projection)
Eburnated (like ivory)
Velvety
Pedunculated (with a stalk)
Sessile (borad-based)
Macule (flat lesion)
Papule (raised lesion)
Friable (soft and falling apart and crumbly)
Excrescence (an irregular outgrowth)
Fimbriated (fringe-like)
Exophytic (projecting out from a surface)
Endophyic (projecting within a space)
Scabrous (covered with small projections
and rough to the touch)
Papyraceous (like parchment or paper
Examples
Fibroadenoma, mixed tumor, hamartoma
Invasive carcinoma, surgical scars
Cutaneous melanoma
Mucosal shape of colon carcinoma
Lipoma
Bone in degenerative joint disease
Cutaneous condyloma
Bladder tumors, papillary renal cell carcinoma
Villous adenoma of the colon
Exposed polished one surface after loss of cartilage in
degenerative joint disease
Normal gallbladder mucosa
Some colon polyps, achrocordon
Some colon polyps
Lentigo, café-au-lait spot
Mole
Papillary renal cell carcinoma, necrotic tumors
Carcinoma invading through skin
The normal end of the fallopian tube
A papilloma in a duct
Inverted papilloma
Pleural plaque
Fetus papyraceous – a fetus found within the placental
membranes of a twin