Digital Pathology Blog

Celestial corpora amylacea

 Several years ago I wrote up a "Nebulous Corpora Amylacea" I came across in a prostate biopsy.

 

Corpora amylacea are simply laminated luminal secretions that are commonly present in prostatic glands and increase in prevalence with advancing age. They are present in 25% of men as early as the third to fifth decades of life and are thought to be related to epithelial cell desquamation and degeneration. 

Shortly after the image appeared in print someone sent along another celestial corpora amylacea with resemblance to the planet Saturn I re-discovered buried in my image files.

Open letter to patients regarding health care coverage

Dr. Wes has an open letter to patients regarding health care coverage:

Dear Mr. and Ms. Patient,

It has come to my attention that in order for you to enjoy success as patients in the new era of health care reform, you must start working now to prevent illnesses that might befall you. Do not, under any circumstances, eat or drink too much. Fast food might as well be considered illegal. Exercise three, four, five times a day, even if it means take time off from work. It goes without saying that you should not smoke. The government has data that demonstrates how you have become fat, lazy, and a huge burden on our health care system. Your non-compliance threatens the very fiber of our economy. Even employers realize this, and are using calculators to figure your financial burden to them.

Now, in the unfortunate circumstance where you might become sick, you will need to develop symptoms that follow a few simple rules. Do not, under any circumstances, develop symptoms that fall outside federal protocols developed based on comparative effectiveness research data. If you do, your doctors will face pay cuts, litigation, limited resources due to lack of funding for cost-ineffective technologies, and the scourge of discharge planners. Does the term "leper colony" mean anything to you?

Read the rest here.

 

Do I know this person?

A wise old pathologist once told me in the course of my training that everything we see in histology is an "artifact".  All the fixation, processing, chemicals and stains that the tissue goes through creates numerous "characteristics" we recognize to make a diagnosis. The blue nuclei, red cytoplasm, clefts, folds, tears, spaces, tangential sections, some "growth patterns", "nuclear characteristics" and "cytoplasmic qualities" are all artifacts.  Actually, one could argue everything one visualizes is an "artifact" that your brain perceives and interprets.  It may or may not actually be what that object is but you recognize it as something either familiar or unfamiliar to you. 

There is an old story about the three baseball umpires, discussing how they make calls. The first said, "I call them as I see them." The second, "I call them as they are." The third, "They ain't nothin' until I call 'em." This story is full of meaning and you could substitute pathologists in place of baseball umpires if you think about it. 

However, nothing prepared me for catching this in a recent section in an otherwise unremarkable negative immunohistochemical stain. 

Does anyone know this guy?

Lost dog is found

A recent post on "gastric man" was particularly popular. 

Here is another one from my own collection. 

Several years ago a group at Northwestern published an image of a "lost dog" in the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in a breast biopsy.

Since that time I had this image in a breast FNA:

  

And from another breast FNA - the same diagnosis (fibroadenoma) with a birdlike configuration:  

View this photo  

Electronic pharmacy order mishap

Funny post on "the wonder of electronics" over at Dr. Wes.

Wes tells me the entire story is true.

Some other great posts as well from the past week worth checking out.

"Gastric Man"

Courtesy of Dr. Pulin S Kothari, MD, MD from Katy, TX. A stomach biopsy with an interesting shape...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pulkot/3407362682/

Web 2.0 April Fool's Day Hoax

Slow April Fool's Day for me all in all.  Received this e-mail from SlideShare:

Hi tissuepathology,

We've noticed that your slideshow on SlideShare has been getting a LOT of views in the last 24 hours. Great job ... you must be doing something right. ;-)

Why don't you tweet or blog this? Use the hashtag #bestofslideshare so we can track the conversation.

Congratulations,
-SlideShare Team

Having never used a "hashtag" on Twitter, naturally I googled "#bestofslideshare" to see what came up and found this story on Mashable.

Apparently some people caught on and others didn't given twitscoop search.

I do recall falling for the Sidd Finch hoax from Sports Ilustrated which makes this Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time.

Bracketology 101

As you consider your brackets for March Madness, Greg Doyle has a nice read and table below o back up his claims on "home" games in the tournament and considerations for your selections.

NCAA home cooking
In the past decade, de facto "home" NCAA tournament games have been a slingshot to the Final Four for six national champions, three runners-up and five other semifinalists. And the trend is gaining steam.
Year	Team	Site	End result
1999	Duke	1st 2 rounds in Charlotte	NC game
2000	Michigan St.	Region at Auburn Hills	NCAA title
2001	Duke	1st 2 rounds in Greensboro	NCAA title
2002	Maryland	1st 2 rounds in Washington DC	NCAA title
2003	Syracuse	Region at Albany	NCAA title
2003	Texas	Region at San Antonio	Final Four
2004	Duke	1st 2 rounds in Raleigh	Final Four
2005	Illinois	1st 2 rounds in Indianapolis, Regionals in Chicago	NC game
2005	N. Carolina	1st 2 rounds in Charlotte	NCAA title
2006	Florida	1st 2 rounds in Jacksonville	NCAA title
2006	UCLA	1st 2 rounds in San Diego, Regionals in Oakland	Final Four
2008	Memphis	1st 2 rounds in Little Rock	NC game
2008	UCLA	1st 2 rounds in Anaheim	Final Four
2008	N. Carolina	1st 2 rounds in Raleigh, Regionals in Charlotte	Final Four

The Medical Profession Speaks out on the Financial Bail-Out Package

The medical community speaks out on the bailout - thanks and credit to Jospeh Spilman for posting on PATHO-L listserve.

The allergists voted to scratch it, and the dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

The gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve, and the obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception.

The ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted; the pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the pediatricians said, 'Oh, Grow up!'

The psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, the radiologists could see right through it, and the surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.

The internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the plastic surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter."

The podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the urologists felt the scheme wouldn't hold water.

The anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas; and the cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.

In the end, the proctologists left the decision up to the a*****es in Washington.

Happy Thanksgiving

Posts to resume December 1.