Cutaneous Mass On The Right Flank Of A 2 Year-old, Female-spayed, Black Labrador Retriever.  The Owner

Me whenever I see a corporate ad trying to say “we’re all in this together”:

Aspirate of a mammary mass from a 8 year-old, female-intact, Yorkshire Terrier.  The patient was found wondering in a field by a good Samaritan-turned-owner over the 4th of July weekend.  Although she was acting normally, the owner brought the little dog in for a ‘look over.’  On physical examination a 2cm mass was felt in the left mammary chain.  No obvious spay scar was present.

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On cytology there were copious clusters of epithelial cells.  These epithelial cells (top picture) were very non-descript, making for large, jumbled piles of cells.  Notice how you cannot see any well-defined cell borders between them?? Just a ton of nuclei (and nucleoli) blending in together!  That’s a sign of cell craziness!  Many clusters were surrounded by this gorgeous, pink-magenta material.  Likely secretory product or matrix.

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Cytologic diagnosis:  Mammary tumor!  Although the cells look quite malignant on cytology, many studies have shown you cannot reliably determine malignancy with cytology alone.  Thus, you NEED a biopsy to determine if a mammary tumor is malignant or benign in a dog.  And flip a coin on that - about 50% are malignant and 50% are benign.  Intact female dogs have an almost 35% lifetime chance of developing one of these beasts!

This is Phthirus pubis, a human louse, commonly known as “crabs" — it is known to infect pubic hair but can infect the EYELASHES. 

I came across this while making a high yield vector borne disease lecture for an upcoming talk. On the clinical pathology boards, they apparently really like to show “gross" gross photographs of bugs and ask what is it or what disease does it cause. I have a fascination with tick born disease, so it felt natural to expand and learn some more entomology. My attending was looking through my lecture and said I needed to add an example of a louse and a flea, since people commonly mix them up. Well, I naturally started to google… and ended up grossing myself AND my attending out. 

A job well done. Another excellent day on clinical microbiology. 

PS - up until a year ago, I thought that “crabs" were actually miniature crabs. What? I wasn’t that far off! Both are apart of the phylum arthropoda!

Impression smears of brain tissue are rarely rewarding on cytology as most neuronal cells rupture with the slightest amount of pressure.  What results is a Vast Pink Wasteland of Myelin…

Behold the Gastric Rainbow. Sounds gross, but it’s actually beautiful. This cross-section of a mouse intestine is labeled with a spectrum of fluorescent molecules. From the green and magenta digestive enzyme-producing cells to the red mucus-secreting cells, this is one of the most dynamic areas in the mammalian body: Each cell is replaced by another every 3-5 days.

(via The Scientist Magazine)

This bad little boy is super rare to find!!!  This is a mitotically active cell present in peripheral blood circulation from a dog - only the second one I have ever seen!!

As a game, in the diagnostic lab we yell KABLAM! anytime we see a mitotic figure.  The first one to say kablam wins :-P  We should so turn it into a drinking game…

Nothing spices up your love life like the scientific method!