Kurts Notes – By Dr. Kurt Schaberg Below are my notes for a range of conditions commonly encountered by surgical pathologists and cytopathologists I developed these as teaching aides for my resident didactic sessions and trainees at the University of California, Davis
Quizzes Boards – Kurts Notes - UC Davis Flashcards based on my notes can be found here Practice Board Exams: Multiple choice, like the boards Record your diagnoses on the website, which will grade your answers when you’re done You can then review your selections with the answer sheet after submission to see the answers to the questions you got wrong
Books – Kurts Notes - UC Davis The Bethesda System for Reporting Thyroid Cytopathology: Definitions, Criteria, and Explanatory Notes (2nd ed , 2018) by Syed Z Ali, Edmund S Cibas Immunohistochemistry Diagnostic Immunohistochemistry: Theranostic and Genomic Applications (5th Edition, 2015) by David J Dabbs MD
Lung Tumors – Kurts Notes - UC Davis If there is overt evidence of squamous differentiation, such as keratinization, keratin pearls, and or intracellular bridges: – Squamous cell carcinoma
Reporting Diagnoses Comments – Kurts Notes - UC Davis Stylistically, I try to keep my diagnoses as brief as reasonable for simplicity sake Any additional information I try to save for a comment If something is “normal,” I personally use the diagnostic line “No significant abnormality” (of which there are many institutional and or personal permutations) More on “Kurt’s style” here
Thyroid – Kurts Notes - UC Davis CATEGORY II: BENIGN 0-3% risk of malignancy Clinical Management: Clinical follow-up UCD smartphrase: BT2 – Benign follicular nodular disease (Bethesda category 2), see comment COMMENT: The specimen is *** cellular and shows scattered clusters of cytologically bland follicular epithelial cells with a spectrum of oncocytic change in a background of *** amounts of *** colloid
Genitourinary – Kurts Notes - UC Davis These GU diagnoses are courtesy of my colleague Kenneth Iczkowski, M D who specializes in GU pathology: PROSTATE BIOPSIES Benign – Benign prostatic tissue
Pancreas – Kurts Notes - UC Davis – Adenocarcinoma (see comment) COMMENT: The aspirate smears are abundantly cellular and show sheets and clusters of malignant appearing cells that are characterized by architectural disarray, nuclear pleomorphism (greater than 4:1), and irregular nuclear contours The cell block shows similar findings The features are those of adenocarcinoma and are consistent with a pancreatic primary
Salivary Gland – Kurts Notes - UC Davis Category 5: Suspicious for Malignancy Risk of Malignancy: 60% Clinical Management: Surgery – Low-grade salivary gland neoplasm, suspicious for mucoepidermoid carcinoma (Suspicious for malignancy, Milan category 5) (see comment)