In order to determine, rapidly and without the delay required by
conventional tissue preparation techniques for pathological examination
(freezing, sectioning, staining, etc.), whether, an excision, which may
be a biopsy sample, is representative of the morphology of interest of
whether an excisional biopsy in which the tissue taken completely removes
the abnormality is, in either case, the tissue which is desired to be
excisioned, the tissue specimen (18) in encapsulated, preferably as part
of the biopsy procedure. The encapsulated tissue is contained in an
optically transparent cassette (34). The cassette (34) or an endcap (38)
enclosing the cassette is marked with a fiducial (40) indicating and
corresponding to the location of the excision on the patient's body. An
image, which is preferably a representation of a surface of the tissue
specimen and the vertical section(s) area of the tissue internal of the
specimen and adjacent to a surface thereof, is obtained by means of an
electro-optical imaging system (10), preferably a confocal laser scanning
microscope. The cassette is moved, preferably in a stage (22) which
rotates the cassette while translating it, so that the head (12) of the
confocal microscope (its objective lens) provides a linear scan in a
direction perpendicular to the wall of the cassette (also perpendicular
to the surface of the tissue encapsulated in the cassette). The display
(28) from the microscope indicates the morphology at and in proximity to
the surface of the specimen as well as the location thereof. The
pathologist and the surgeon is thereby provided with information
concerning the specimen and whether the entire abnormality desired to be
removed has indeed been removed and/or whether the biopsy is
representative of the body region of interest in the case of a biopsy
sample.