Picture Perfect Pathology
We asked our readers to share their best and most beautiful pathology images – from the sublime to the hilarious – and you responded in droves. Here, we share some of the highlights of your year in pictures…
Snowflakes or Trilobites?
Asymmetrical glands and crypts appear as falling snowflakes with snow goblet cells or trilobites crawling through the lamina propria of this sessile serrated lesion.
Asymmetrical glands and crypts appear as falling snowflakes with snow goblet cells or trilobites crawling through the lamina propria of this sessile serrated lesion.
Credit: Adam L. Booth, courtesy of an anonymous ascending colon biopsy.
Spring on Planet Earth
Dreamscapes through a microscope lens. Eternal cells released in blue skies and green fields, celebrating the coming of spring.
Dreamscapes through a microscope lens. Eternal cells released in blue skies and green fields, celebrating the coming of spring.
Dreamscapes through a microscope lens. Eternal cells released in blue skies and green fields, celebrating the coming of spring.
Dreamscapes through a microscope lens. Eternal cells released in blue skies and green fields, celebrating the coming of spring.
Dreamscapes through a microscope lens. Eternal cells released in blue skies and green fields, celebrating the coming of spring.
Credit: Anna Batistatou, Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, School of Health Sciences, University of Ionannina, Greece.
Microflora, Genus Rosa
Macrocytic transformation to garden flora in a pleural effusion.
Credit: Beth Doughty, University of Colorado, Anschutz, Colorado, USA.
These Are Not Eosinophils
Credit: Christine A. Garcia, Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, New York, USA.
A Truly Microscopic Geometric Phenomenon
I took this photomicrograph of a beautiful cytology from a pelvic wash today because I was stunned by the mathematical arrangement of this group of cells - a truly microscopic geometric phenomenon!
Credit: Dana Razzano, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
A Pathologist Sees Art Everywhere
This image was made using the Sketchbook app on a Microsoft Surface Pro device.
Credit: Deeksha Sikri, Department of Pathology, St. George's University, True Blue Campus, Grenada, West Indies.
Ear Resection Sketch
I recently had the pleasure of grossing an ear resection specimen. I also had the utmost fun drawing a digital sketch of the specimen to make it easier to orient signing out the case and to detail where sections are taken from. The sketch took 15 hours and was made using an iPad.
Credit: Fatima A. Al-Baqali, George Washington University Hospital, Washington, DC, USA.
The Cat in the Hat
This is a bronchial biopsy from a 46-year-old female with a histopathologic diagnosis of nodular lymphoid hyperplasia. Hematoxylin and eosin stain.
Credit: Felipe S. Templo, Jr., Division of Laboratory Medicine, Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City, Philippines.
Deep Blue Cartilage
Normal cartilage, Fite stain. Picture taken with iPhone X.
Credit: Janira M. Navarro Sanchez, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
The Forest
Artifacts of a conventional Pap smear.
Artifacts of a conventional Pap smear.
A Ghost
Prostatic hyperplasia.
Centipedes
Neurofibroma neck injury (Schmidt-Lanterman incisure).
Credit: José Miguel Cruz-Arias, Pathologist, Santo Domingo, República Dominicana.
I Heart Pathology
A heart-shaped blood vessel in a lung.
Credit: Katie Saunders, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Intestine Collage
The Heart Vessel
Masson stain.
The Playboy
Klimt Fusion
Colorectal cancer and a painting by Gustav Klimt.
Klimt Fusion 2
Fluorescent colorectal cancer and a painting by Gustav Klimt.
MSB-Stained Myocardium
Henderson Fusion
Esophagus and art by Beric Henderson.
The Dragon
Credit: Kseniya Ruksha, Belarusian State Medical University, Minsk, Belarus.
After Cajal
Inspired by Santiago Ramon y Cajal's numerous drawings of the central nervous system. Watercolor and India ink on paper.
Credit: Lily Mahler, University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
ISHAGE, Abbreviated: In a Land Where Beads CAN be Cells
An interpretation of ISHAGE gating on apheresis product using mixed media (beads on painted canvas).
Credit: Lindsay N. Hoffman, Quality Control Testing Laboratory, Stem Cell Program, UC Davis Health, Sacramento, California, USA.
The Challenges of a Military Medical Scientist on the Global Stage
Left-right-left, step-by-step, after balanced decisions are met, medical ethics are all we have left.
Pictured: Major (US Army, Retired) Lionel Lowery II.
Creator: Lionel Lowery III.
Marry Me
“I found this in peritoneal liquid and it reminded me of a finger... now I'm engaged!”
“I found this in peritoneal liquid and it reminded me of a finger... now I'm engaged!”
Credit: Luis Antonio Delgado Soler, Hospital Central Militar de México, Mexico City, Mexico.
Waxy Cast
This is a photomicrograph of a waxy cast in urinary sediment from a patient with chronic kidney disease.
Credit: M. Jane McDaniel, Physician Assistant Online Program, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
Renewal
I created this painting shortly after recovering from breast cancer. Cancer has taught me to be “in the moment” and to appreciate relationships and the beauty that surrounds me. “Renewal,” on the shores of Lake Michigan, illustrates that feeling. The painting is also for my stepdaughter, who lost her battle to non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2013. I was very involved in her care and miss her spirit and joy. My goal now is to appreciate, be “in the moment,” and enjoy the beauty that surrounds me.
Credit: Michele Mitchell, Patient Champion, American Society for Clinical Pathology.
Miss Aureus
I’m a new CLS in the field (I graduated last October). I’m also a self-taught artist and I like to incorporate what I see in the lab and under the microscope into my artwork. I find a superhero (or villain) character pose online that I like and replicate the image as a sketch, modifying it as I draw. I then color the characters based on what I know about how microbes grow on various agars or look under the microscope. In Miss Aureus, the colors are chosen to match the Gram stain and growth on blood agar…
Kleb-She-Ella
… and Kleb-She-Ella is matched with the pink mucoid color on the MacConkey agar.
Credit: Natalie Renier, UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, California, USA.
Ribcage Pop Art
Various special stain patterns of bone used to design ribcages.
"Path" to Fashion
A combination of various patterns seen in special stains with fashion.
A combination of various patterns seen in special stains with fashion.
Movat's Muse
A fluid ink depiction of Movat's pentachrome stain (bronchus).
Castleman Candy
Lollipop lesion pattern of Castleman disease.
Zen Microscope
A designer microscope on a background of watercolors.
Credit: Nikita Dasan, Saifee Hospital Mumbai, India.
Flying Disc
A photomicrograph of a follicle.
Credit: Pavlos Skoufogiannis, General Hospital of Volos, Greece.
Blooming Bird
This specimen is a breast mass (fibroadenoma).
Credit: Rico P. Lasaca, Divine Word Hospital, Tacloban City, Leyte, Philippines.
Fish Gonad
Scanned with PathScan Enabler 5.
Five-Day-Old Mouse
Scanned with PathScan Enabler III.
Scanned with PathScan Enabler III.
Mice Five by Five
Serial sections of an embryonic mouse scanned with the PathScan Enabler IV.
Salmon
Scanned with MoticEasyScan Pro 6.
Tetra
Scanned with MoticEasyScan Pro 6.
Zebrafish
Scanned with MoticEasyScan Pro 6.
Credit: Robert D. Meyer, Meyer Instruments, Houston, Texas, USA.
A Sebaceous Flower
Normal skin of the upper lip.
My Laughing Horse
A benign soft tissue neural tumor.
Credit: Roshan Chinoy, Prince Aly Khan Hospital, Mumbai, India.
In a Cage
Normal histology of an embryonal thoracic wall. I love the alternating textures of chondroid and soft tissue/muscular layers. It is vibrant, like waves of different tissues flowing in a living being.
Geometry
This was a quick shot of the broken surface of embedding medium. I played with filters to create images we are familiar with: a bird's-eye view of a city, a street map, or dry soil…
Gallstone
Beautiful “gems” of a gallstone (mixed type). The first and second pictures are subaqueous photographs (note the tiny air bubbles on the surface of the concrement). The stone is multifaceted and multicolored. The wavy laminae remind me of sediment layers: calcium carbonate, calcium bilirubinate, palmitate phosphate, and other bile pigments. This is a relatively rare macromorphology.
Beautiful “gems” of a gallstone (mixed type). The first and second pictures are subaqueous photographs (note the tiny air bubbles on the surface of the concrement). The stone is multifaceted and multicolored. The wavy laminae remind me of sediment layers: calcium carbonate, calcium bilirubinate, palmitate phosphate, and other bile pigments. This is a relatively rare macromorphology.
Beautiful “gems” of a gallstone (mixed type). The first and second pictures are subaqueous photographs (note the tiny air bubbles on the surface of the concrement). The stone is multifaceted and multicolored. The wavy laminae remind me of sediment layers: calcium carbonate, calcium bilirubinate, palmitate phosphate, and other bile pigments. This is a relatively rare macromorphology.
Beautiful “gems” of a gallstone (mixed type). The first and second pictures are subaqueous photographs (note the tiny air bubbles on the surface of the concrement). The stone is multifaceted and multicolored. The wavy laminae remind me of sediment layers: calcium carbonate, calcium bilirubinate, palmitate phosphate, and other bile pigments. This is a relatively rare macromorphology.
Fish
This was taken during a frozen section case and immediately reminded me of paintings of koi in Asiatic styles. One has the impression that the little guy is just jumping out of a pond!
Cthulhu
This shot was taken of placental tissue. The morphology of the “figure” somehow reminded me of H.P. Lovecraft's famous mythological entity, in this case during fetal development.
Cervical Smile
I really dig pareidolic patterns. We pathologists experience them on a daily basis in our field of work. I believe pareidolia and the power of imagination are very strongly connected to each other; for me, pareidolia is intellectually stimulating, morphologically rewarding, and fun all at once.
Bleeding Heart
One of my favorite images because I have often observed a stunning similarity between certain sections of the psilosebacious complex of adult hair and the beautiful Lamprocapnos spectabilis (bleeding heart) flower.
ARTiculate
Embryonic knee joint.
Credit: Sanjai Shah Hauschild, Medizinisches Versorgungszentrum für klinische Pathologie, Klinikum Darmstadt, Germany.
Multicolored Daisy
Fine-needle aspiration of a thyroid gland nodule (colloid).
Stones
Fine-needle aspiration of a lipoma (fat globules).
Credit: Smaroula Divani, Department of Clinical Cytology, Volos General Hospital, Volos, Greece.
Saffron
Roses of Eden
Lonely Tree
Green Tree
Different Planets
Candy Shop
Pop art is a movement changing traditional art by including objects from popular and mass culture to create a different style. One of the best-recognized pop artists, Andy Warhol, inspired me. He changed the whole art scene by using elements of everyday life to portray reality in unconventional ways. Some of his work was a revolt against the loss of the value of art in pop culture, which allowed mass production of art along with many other things.
As a pathologist, microscopic images of many diseases are always around me and I want to change them to make the diseases disappear. Pathart pop art is a result of this desire, a strong drive for all doctors. It is also a revolt against disease.
Credit: Sülen Sarıoğlu, Chair of Molecular Pathology, Dokuz Eylul University, İzmir, Turkey.
Mr. Bones' Outlook on Life
Osteosclerosis and new bone formation in bone marrow with metastases from breast carcinoma.
Credit: Sushma Belurkar, Department of Pathology, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
Into the Microscopic Galaxies
I had always considered the microscopic examination of tissues, cells, and their processes a whole different universe. When I looked at this section of bone, the lacunae in the haversian canals shone out brightly, like stars from a different galaxy. It gave a more literal meaning to the pathologist's "microscopic universe." Like marine biologists dive deep into the ocean to discover beautiful and little-known creatures, we pathologists dive deep into slides to unravel the secrets of diseases.
This bone, however, looked different (not pink) because of processing artefact. Sometimes beauty is serendipitous (as long as we're open to seeing it)!
Credit: Swati Bhardwaj, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, New York, USA.
Mirror Image
Two sides of a calf's head emerge in this cropped and enlarged image of a bone section.
Mirror Image 2
Two sides of a calf's head emerge in this cropped and enlarged image of a bone section.
Credit: Syed Salahuddin Ahmed, Delta Hospital Ltd., Dhaka, Bangladesh
