Artifact

ARTIFACT (from Latin artefactum - made artificially), a term for designating artificially induced pathological and biological processes and formations. In some cases, obtaining an artifact is one of the methods of experimental biology. Thus, by changing the environment (temperature, chemical composition), one can artificially achieve changes in the structure and physiological functions of entire organisms, individual organs, and cells; by influencing the general course of metabolism in the body, disrupting the nutrition or innervation of any organ or its natural connections, one can achieve certain morphological and physiological changes. In microscopy, artifact denotes various observable microscopic processes and formations that appear in tissues and organs in connection with their technical processing and are not characteristic of them in a living state, for example, wrinkling, swelling, plasmolysis, precipitation of various substances, formation of cavities, etc. For this reason, interpretation of microscopic pictures requires great caution and a critical attitude. In clinical and forensic medicine, artifact is understood as pathological processes caused and maintained artificially, for example, for the purpose of simulation (see). Such are ulcers caused by caustic alkalis or acids, abscesses from the injection of turpentine or kerosene, jaundice from taking picric acid, artificial prolapse of the rectum, etc.