[Organopathy: dealing with an interdisciplinary pathological term from the radiologist's point of view]

Organopathy is a common pathological term used by diagnostic radiologists. More than 100 different examples of organopathy can be found in the literature. The appellations are highly esteemed for their role as connecting links between the path anatomical substrate and the clinical symptoms in many frequent disorders. However, the radiological diagnosis of an organopathy is not generally equivalent to the same statement made by pathologists or clinicians. Its accuracy depends on the organ involved as well as the origin, the symptoms, and the histological substrate of the disorder. Moreover, the imaging technique applied does exert some influence. So, a classification of the terms according to the importance of imaging for the diagnosis of the respective diseases seems to be useful. On the basis of that criterion, six different groups can be established. The 1st group is formed by disorders not identifiable with the aid of imaging techniques, the organs involved essentially being detectable (e. g. neuropathy). The majority of organopathies of the 2nd group can be recognized by radiologists because of gross morphologic criteria, but differential diagnosis is not feasible (e. g. myopathy). By contrast, the organopathies of the 3rd group can be differentiated by means of x-ray and allied techniques basically (e. g. encephalopathy), while those of the 4th group to a high degree (e. g. arthropathy). The 5th group is made up of organopathies whose clinical and radiological diagnoses correspond or are at least almost identical (e. g. endocrine orbitopathy). The organopathies of the 6th group are completely defined by imaging characteristics, that is, the terms possess a specific radiologic autonomy (e. g. pulmonary hypertrophic osteoarthropathy). In the future, some disorders that are at present still referred to as organopathies, may be renamed because of a better understanding of their nature.