Guinea pig lumps
This is a low power view of a trichofolliculoma, one of the most commonly diagnosed skin masses in guinea pigs. They often present as a cystic mass, sometimes associated with keratinous material which extrudes from a central pore. Sometimes mistaken for an abscess because of this!
The hair follicles and sebaceous glands are often well-differentiated and the tumour often has a large central cystic cavity.
Amyloid
This is a Congo red stain on a feline pancreatic sample. Below is the same section stained in HE
Arrows are pointing to Islets, in this case obliterated by amyloid
Amyloid is a fairly homogenous, rather nondescript eosinophilic material on routine HE stained sections, and if suspected its presence ideally needs to be confirmed by special stains such as Congo Red. This particular stain colours amyloid an orange-red colour, and when viewed under a polarised light the material demonstrates apple-green birefringence
Here is another example, this time a case from a Shar Pei dog where deposition has occurred in the glomeruli in the kidney
Mycobacteria
One of my obsessions!
This is a typical appearance on HE stain
Look at those macrophages!
Ziehl-Neelsen Stain on a case
with plenty of organisms
Many don't have these numbers and can be very challenges to identify in sections
When our laboratory "went digital" we were worried that detection of such low numbers of organisms might be more difficult, and that we might miss them - so we did a study to look at any differences between glass slides and digital WSI
Feline Cardiomyopathy
Feline cardiomyopathy is another area of interest, mostly through collaborations with the RVC.
Through this collaboration I have gained a lot of experience in the assessment of feline hearts, especially histologically
I use the dissection technique as taught by Dr. Phil Fox
- I'm a big fan!
Word has since spread, that I am interested in feline hearts, meaning people reach out when they have an interesting case, such as the one above!
One of the features we look for histologically to support a diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is myofiber disarray
It can be subtle, but sometimes we get cases like the one above where it is easy to see the branching of myofibers and their haphazard arrangement - in the photo above you can see them running in all directions when they should (mostly) be parallel to one another
I thought the image above was so striking that I entered it into a photography competition organised by the British Veterinary Association. I feel like histopathology is seen as something mysterious by the rest of the veterinary profession and I'd like this to change - we all learn histology and histopathology as undergraduates after all! Vets should not be scared of it!
Much to my delight, my entry was chosen to be part of an exhibition and I was invited along to the Houses of Parliament in January 2018 - the exhibition was entitled "Through the eyes of vets" aiming to highlight to parliamentarians, and members of the public visiting Parliament that week, the vital and varied role of today’s vets and wider vet-led teams.
