The following terms may be seen on board certification exams and were updated to reflect changes in current guidelines. Terms are listed alphabetically by old term.
Terminology Changes for 2026
| Old Term: Term was used in 2025 exams and prior. | New Term: Term will be used in 2026 exams and going forward. |
|---|---|
| aggressive digital papillary adenocarcinoma aggressive digital papillary carcinoma aggressive digital papillary adenoma | digital papillary adenocarcinoma |
| BAP-1 associated nevus | BAP-1 inactivated melanocytoma |
| basaloid (Breast-related Questions) | basal-like |
| Battle sign | mastoid ecchymosis |
| CHARGE association | CHARGE syndrome |
| Enterobacteriaceae | Enterobacterales |
| hemangiopericytoma | solitary fibrous tumor |
| isospora | cystoisospora |
| isosporiasis | Cystoisosporiasis |
| Isospora belli | Cystoisospora belli |
| jelly-roll (Placenta Questions) | membrane-roll |
| Masson hemangioma | papillary endothelial hyperplasia |
| maternal floor infarction | massive perivillous fibrin deposition |
| poorly differentiated (insular) thyroid carcinoma insular carcinoma of the thyroid insular carcinoma (thyroid only) | high-grade follicular cell-derived nonanaplastic thyroid carcinoma |
| proliferating juvenile hemangioma | infantile hemangioma |
| proliferative Brenner tumor | borderline Brenner tumor |
| round cell liposarcoma | myxoid liposarcoma |
| sessile serrated adenoma, sessile serrated polyp (GI only) | sessile serrated lesion |
| transitional cell carcinoma | urothelial carcinoma |
| thrombotic thrombocytopenia (TTP) | thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) |
| unsatisfactory (cytopathology only) | nondiagnostic |
Terminology Changes for 2025
| Old Term: Term was used in 2024 exams and prior. | New Term: Term will be used in 2025 exams and going forward. |
|---|---|
| AUS/FLUS (cytopathology) | AUS |
| blighted ovum | anembryonic pregnancy |
| follicular neoplasm, Hürthle cell type (thyroid questions only) | follicular neoplasm, oncocytic type |
| Hürthle cell carcinoma (thyroid questions only) | oncocytic carcinoma |
| Hürthle cell neoplasm (thyroid questions only) | oncocytic neoplasm |
| insular carcinoma (thyroid questions only) | high-grade follicular cell-derived non-anaplastic thyroid carcinoma |
| maternal floor infarction | massive perivillous fibrin deposition |
| Monkey pox | Mpox |
| pituitary adenoma | PitNET/adenoma |
| sloughing esophagitis | esophagitis dissecans superficialis |
| thrombotic thrombocytopenia (TTP) | thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) |
| unsatisfactory (thyroid cytology terminology when applicable) | nondiagnostic |
Terminology Changes for 2024
| Old Term: Term was used in 2023 exams and prior. | New Term: Term will be used in 2024 exams and going forward. |
|---|---|
| abused | misused |
| alcoholic | person with alcohol use disorder |
| alcoholism | alcohol use disorder |
| allergic esophagitis | eosinophilic esophagitis |
| angiolymphoid hyperplasia with eosinophilia | epithelioid hemangioma |
| benign follicular nodule (thyroid questions only) | follicular nodular disease |
| benign papillary mesothelioma | well-differentiated papillary mesothelial tumor of the pleura |
| Churg-Strauss disease or syndrome | eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis |
| cribriform-morular variant of papillary thyroid carcinoma | cribriform morular thyroid carcinoma |
| cystic adenomatoid malformation | congenital pulmonary airway malformation |
| electrical conductive device | conducted energy device |
| endometrial adenosarcoma | adenosarcoma of the uterine corpus |
| endometrial stromal sarcoma | low-grade endometrial stromal sarcoma |
| hyalinizing trabecular adenoma | hyalinizing trabecular tumor |
| Hürthle cell adenoma (thyroid questions only) | oncocytic adenoma of the thyroid |
| Kleihauer-Betke | fetal RBC quantitation in maternal blood |
| Lacazia loboi | Paracoccidioides loboi |
| metaphyseal fibrous defect | non-ossifying fibroma |
| Mongolian spot | congenital dermal melanocytosis |
| myxoid chondrosarcoma | extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma |
| pigmented villonodular synovitis | tenosynovial giant cell tumor |
| poorly differentiated thyroid carcinoma (thyroid questions only) | high-grade follicular cell-derived non-anaplastic thyroid carcinoma |
| pulmonary blastoma | pleuropulmonary blastoma |
| Reference ranges | Reference Value(s) or Reference Interval, as appropriate |
| sclerosing hemangioma (lung questions only) | sclerosing pneumocytoma |
| Wegener granulomatosis | granulomatosis with polyangiitis |
| well-differentiated papillary mesothelioma (In GYN pathology questions only) | well-differentiated papillary mesothelial tumor |