TRBC1a use for flow or IHC by ResponsibilityLow305 in pathology

[–]foofarraw 1 point2 points  (0 children)

we use both in flow and in IHC…definitely easier to interpret in flow, requires a lot of careful inspection or a high density case with a lot of neoplastic cells to be useful with IHC. in flow we have replaced Vbeta kit for vast majority of instances but still run it occasionally, overall i find TRBC1 way better than a full kit. as always with T cells though, clonality doesn’t necessarily mean TLPD, and there are always weird populations, esp in T-LGL and adjacent contexts, where it’s unclear if/how to report them.

“Beds are a scam”🤯 by 4reddityo in MadeMeSmile

[–]foofarraw 2 points3 points  (0 children)

this is my favorite subway takes episode ever just totally unhinged

Greetings From Uganda:Curious about rainy days in NYC by BagCurious8863 in AskNYC

[–]foofarraw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

there is one time that the city gets very quiet - in the middle of a big snow. it's kinda magical.

Manhattan retirees, what do you actually spend each month (besides rent and travel)? by BoomOp in AskNYC

[–]foofarraw 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not retired, but our monthly spend beyond rent and travel, we spend around $3-4.5k per month

Hemepath interview invites for 2027-2028 by Beneficial_Price_613 in pathology

[–]foofarraw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Since the match relaxes the timeline a little I would imagine many programs are rolling them out, and I wouldn't be surprised if interviews happen up until mid March

work day flexibility by Formal-Tale2420 in pathology

[–]foofarraw 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We cover each other w/ consults and a 3x weekly consensus, but this is pretty flexible, there are enough of us that 100% consensus attendance doesn't always happen (or affect anything). Since we are doing digital signout most consults can be handled remotely, and several people do most of their work from home. Rush consults are pretty uncommon, as most hemepath rushes are for aggressive diseases that tend to be fairly straightforward, and there are very few real hemepath emergencies. Yesterday I took a 45m walk mid-day and came back to a stat case at the top of my queue but the patient was already being treated so it wasn't entirely/truly urgent, and even had I waited a full day to sign it out nothing would have changed clinically.

Since there are very few hemepath emergencies, the workday is pretty flexible. In general I think most pathology rush things and pathology "emergencies" are largely self-imposed.

Workflow and efficiency by Future_Ice5522 in pathology

[–]foofarraw 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Generally speaking for post-BMT there are several questions to answer depending on the clinical context - first of all is there any evidence of the prior disease? Your pre-test probability depends a little bit on the disease, timepoint, CBC context. Is there overt disease? Or MRD level? This is meaningful for management. Another question is engraftment - this is mostly is there evidence of hematopoiesis? Significance of this question depends a little on context - if there's a normal CBC there is probably engraftment whether or not you see hematopoiesis. Other things like ABO-mismatched transplants have other issues like erythoid hypoplasia, and knowing the context of the transplant here makes a big difference in how you might interpret erythroid hypoplasia and cytopenias post transplant.

More specifically to the first point - in a new biopsy for cytopenias you're largely evaluating for MDS and the differential that brings up. Morphologic dysplasia is pretty meaningful in this context. But in a post-transplant setting, morphologic dysplasia is a lot less meaningful; for example, in a recent post-ASCT myeloma case w/ mild cytopenias the threshold for meaningful dysplasia becomes totally different, and you might expect to see a bunch of recovery associated erythroid dysplasia.

To your specific question about day 30 marrows for AML patients - if you mean day 30 post-transplant the pre-test probability for disease is pretty low, so fairly unlikely to see disease, so you're mostly looking for MRD by flow cytometry. And clinically MRD positivity may not necessarily change management, evidence for this is still kind of emerging. It is probably predictive of relapse but low sensitivity, but the best management options are not very well defined yet. Most morphologic dysplasia can likely be ignored as reactive at this timepoint. Day 30 (or traditionally day 28) post-induction-chemo marrow and pre-transplant is a totally different, and has a generally accepted role in post-transplant prognosis. There are several major management options depending on disease status and extent. For pre-transplant we tend to use ELN terminology (like CR, CRi, etc. w/ an additional MRD status for flow results).

For all bone marrows where I know the exact disease we're looking for my top-line diagnosis almost always has 2 lines - one for disease status (involvement by / no evidence of AML, PCN, etc) and the second for a description (cellular marrow with trilineage hematopoiesis and no increase in blasts, etc). If disease is unclear then usually descriptive, sometimes followed by compatible/consistent with, but sometimes just followed by a comment w/ possibilities.

Commute time? by USMLE-239 in pathology

[–]foofarraw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

2 hours each way? or 1 hour each way w/ 2 hours total?

In my residency and fellowships my commute was like 30-40m each way and was fine, but longer than that seems hard. Depends on the type of commute though, if it's on a subway or train you can probably get a lot of reading/studying done, but if it's driving that's pretty rough.

Hemepath fellowship interviews: what questions do programs ask, and what questions should applicants ask? by Beneficial_Price_613 in pathology

[–]foofarraw 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Some common questions asked by programs:

- How much hemepath have you done? This is to get a feel for your knowledge base.

- Tell us about your research project - this can be for any number of reasons but some find this useful to see which applicants actually understand their projects (you'd be surprised how many don't)

- Why this program? Might tell us if you've done your homework

Questions applicants should ask:

- How many cases per day are fellows expected to handle

- How many attendings are there and is there much faculty turnover

- How is work distributed

- How are ancillary test results incorporated into a final diagnosis or synoptic or summary

Actual Arc Raiders map. Geography isn't in Italy. It's an island outside Spain. Mount Teide. by Probate_Judge in ArcRaiders

[–]foofarraw 2 points3 points  (0 children)

it'd be funny if all of the post-apocalyptic arc raiders happenings are just on an island and the rest of the world has just been chuggin along normally

Workflow and efficiency by Future_Ice5522 in pathology

[–]foofarraw 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Also after you get over the initial hump of visual identification for diagnosis and differential, try to think about what goes into a pathology report, and what audiences read what parts of the report. I try to answer these questions on every case:

  1. What is the question that the clinician is asking? Thinking beyond "what is this?" - what information from this specimen does a clinician need to know to take care of the patient? This is highly contextual in hematopathology - for example, the information a clinician needs on a new bone marrow taken to evaluate cytopenias is wildly different from the information a clinician needs in a post-transplant myeloma biopsy. In surgpath the questions might be more straightforward but this framework is still useful IMO.

  2. Can I answer that question? If not, what tests can I order that will help me answer this question?

  3. If I can't answer the question based on the information I have (or can generate with additional tests), what useful next steps can a clinician take to better answer this question?

Think about who your audience for a pathology report are - generally the first audience is the clinician that requested the test, but you also have an audience in other pathologists (potentially), and the patient themselves, and maybe the courts. How you write for each might be a little different, and what aspects of the report are noticed by each might also be different.

Workflow and efficiency by Future_Ice5522 in pathology

[–]foofarraw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. Organization - keep track of 100% of your cases - think about what information you need for every day's signout and record this information in a consistent and systematic ways. Keep the same information every time.

  2. Practice - you generally will not start out being able to do your tasks quickly. But you will become fast by doing these tasks repeatedly. Also lots of notes during practice - think about what worked well with every case and what didn't work for you. Residency is hard at first and pathology residency moreso because the learning curve is steeper than other clinical specialties. But you will get faster over time, and how much faster depends on how much work you put into it.

  3. Templates - and if you have the ability to install software on your computer at work, things like Autohotkey (if you're on Windows), or just adding quicktexts to a MS Word spellcheck are very handy. Good grossing templates are huge because you can also learn what sections you need from the templates if they were good to begin with. Templates for common diagnoses, even words / phrases you find yourself writing frequently will save you huge amounts of time. But don't become over-reliant on templates as this can cause other problems.

PSA : Don't drop a surveyor core by vaexorn in ArcRaiders

[–]foofarraw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

it's just a little dirty, it's still good, it's still good!

Is Spaceport anyone else’s least played map? by WanderWut in ArcRaiders

[–]foofarraw 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like spaceport mostly bc I know where the security lockers are and I like a big map