I am the happiest person on the planet today.
No, I didn't win anything.
But I heard of an *amazing* achievement by my mentee!
Mentoring is incredibly fulfilling.
That is all.😀
I don't have a SoundCloud but let me raise the issue of light pollution. We can no longer see the stars like our ancestors did. But with a few simple changes we can reduce light pollution—this is good for our health, for wildlife & would restore our connection to the universe!1/2
A breathtaking sight as the October moon rises over the beautiful Chicago skyline! The building in front of the moon is the Aon Center. The Willis (Sears) Tower is to the right. Taken from a point 11 miles west of downtown
@LoyolaHSD
. Inspired by
@Stephencheatley
&
@DavidBflower
@kprather88
@CDCDirector
@CDCgov
The latest
@CDCgov
guideline allowing COVID-POSITIVE Health Care Personnel to treat COVID-NEGATIVE patients in crisis situations tells you all you need to know. It's not about protecting patients/HCPs. It's about maintaining an appearance of normalcy amid failed policies.
@uche_blackstock
The whole "talk with your provider" is absurd. No need for permission from a doctor. A mask is not a prescription drug. Don't waste your time or the providers time (if you have one).
Journalists who cover Elon Musk have been suspended on Twitter tonight:
@Donie
O'Sullivan from CNN, Aaron Rupar and the Washington Post's
@drewharwell
.
Rupar tells me he has "no idea" why it happened.
So many liked my photo of the October moon rising over Chicago! But that was just one of over 100 photos, so I put some of them to good use by making a time-lapse!
#Moon
#Chicago
For more on the effects of light pollution (a lot more than mere correlation 😉) and what you can do to reduce it, check out Saving our Stars and the International Dark-Sky Association: 2/2
Today is a big day. The amazing
@kmirza
gets promoted to Associate Professor and VICE CHAIR of Education
@loyolapathology
No one deserves it more. So proud!
#Mirzaculous
Ludicrous editorial in today's Chicago Tribune justifying and even celebrating Walgreens' disastrous investment into Theranos. Because Walgreens can "afford to make mistakes". If only they had bothered talking to a pathologist before sinking $149 million🤦♂️
Total lunar eclipse from Oak Park, IL! Picture taken this morning, right at peak totality, 4:59 am. Easily the most beautiful lunar eclipse I've ever seen!🤩
Canon R6, Canon RF100-400mm @ 400mm, f/8, 0.8s, ISO2000, electronic shutter
#BloodMoon
#Astrophotography
#LunarEclipse
@VPrasadMDMPH
I'm puzzled too but here's a hypothesis. Perhaps some just don't want to go to "normal". Maybe they like some aspects of the COVID lifestyle, such as WFH because they want to avoid a toxic workplace, certain social interactions, etc. And so they are hoping "normal" never arrives.
This cell is usually difficult to see because it is hidden within bone marrow spicules. But once in a while, it is out in the open. What is this cell?
📸by
@AlessaAragaoMD
I went to work today, 6 am on a Saturday, and was rewarded with this glorious view of the Chicago skyline at dawn!
The John Hancock Building is to the left and the Willis (Sears) Tower to the right.
One of the perks of living and working near Chicago!
@RexChapman
@BonziWells
The lineup of Bonzi Wells , Rasheed Wallace, Scottie Pippen, Steve Smith and Arvydas Sabonis was my favorite, and came *this* close to winning it all.
Just published: "Common flow cytometry pitfalls in diagnostic hematopathology" by Sindhu Cherian, Ben Hedley &
@MikeKeeney11
, in the ICCS journal Clinical Cytometry.
An outstanding article—a must-read for anyone interested in
#hemepath
&
#Flowcytometry
!
Pathology is firmly in the favorable lower left quadrant of the "Physician Happiness Chart".
Low burnout.
High work-life balance satisfaction.
The ability to make a crucial contribution to patient-care.
What's not to like about a career in Pathology?😀
Check this NEW preprint from the University of Nebraska demonstrating that SARS-CoV-2
#COVID19
is present as AEROSOL particles "even in the absence of cough or aerosol generating procedures". AIRBORNE isolation precautions including N95 were protective.
The
@PrometricGlobal
cancellation/rescheduling of
@TheUSMLE
exams has been disastrous for all medical students. And I've learned it hurts students with disabilities even more. Here's why: Students with testing accommodations have to CALL Prometric and cannot reschedule online 1/5
Is that a Howell-Jolly body in a 𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘭𝘦 cell? It sure is! In sickle cell anemia HJ bodies are usually seen in non-sickled RBCs. But look around you may just find it in a sickle cell! HJ bodies are seen in SSA secondary to "autosplenectomy"
#hemepath
📸 by
@AlessaAragaoMD
From the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine "...the results of available studies are consistent with aerosolization of virus from normal breathing"
THIS is why universal masking can help.
The full letter has more insights and references:
It bothers me when students are not given appropriate credit/authorship for their work. Someone who writes the paper & does the analysis should be first author, and not relegated to the middle. Doing so is nothing but exploitation of the vulnerable, and happens way too often, smh
#Hemepath
pitfall alert! Thrombopoietin-mimetic agents such as eltrombopag (Promacta) & romiplostim (Nplate) cause changes in megakaryocytes that exactly mimic MDS/MPNs. The paper below describes some abnormal forms, but I've seen the whole gamut. Be wary!
Baily's beads, fiery flares, phenomenal prominences! This eclipse had it all—truly an extraordinary experience!🙌
This picture was taken at third contact. Canon R6, RF100-500 at 500 mm, f/7.1, ISO 400, 1/6400s, April 8, 2024, Indianapolis, Indiana.
#SolarEclipse2024
#Eclipse2024
Excellent piece by
@KruppLexi
in
@Medscape
on how the Prometric USMLE cancellation/rescheduling fiasco has taken a toll on medical students.
Special thanks for highlighting the difficulties faced by students with disabilities.
Nice case of daratumumab related kappa pseudoclonality in
@bloodjournal
. Daratumumab (which is IgG κ) binds to CD38 on hematogones (black) and the κ is then detected by flow. Do not interpret this finding as a B-cell lymphoproliferative disorder!
#hemepath
Wow, just captured Mars and the Pleiades star cluster (Seven Sisters/Subaru/Kṛttikā) in their closest approach this century! You'll have to wait until 2038 to see them this close!
The red planet Mars is on the lower left.
Canon 70D, Tamron 18-400mm at 77mm, ISO400, f/5.0, 2s.
I can't believe
@NBOME
is STILL planning on holding the COMLEX Level 2 PE exam, with students from all over the country traveling to Chicago. This RECKLESS move will endanger the lives of students, their families & communities.
@NBOME
do the right thing and suspend he exam NOW.
Wow, lucky to capture Venus and the Pleiades star cluster just before the clouds came in! What a beautiful sight!
Canon 70D, Tamron 18-400mm at 70mm, f/6.3, 4s, ISO1600, Sky-Watcher tripod, Manfrotto head
SO NODULAR LYMPHOCYTE PREDOMINANT HODGKIN LYMPHOMA IS NOT REALLY HODGKIN LYMPHOMA SO WE RENAMED IT NODULAR LYMPHOCYTE PREDOMINANT B-CELL LYMPHOMA (NLPBL), BUT ONLY IN THE ICC, NOT IN THE WHO5, BUT WHO5 DOES SAY NLPBL MAY BE MORE ACCURATE. IT’S ALL SO SIMPLE, DON’T YOU GET IT?
The new International Consensus Classification is out. Nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) is now nodular lymphocyte predominant B-cell lymphoma. For yrs I've been teaching that NLPHL is an outlier & should not be classified as HL, so great to see this change!
A brilliant green-red Perseid meteor blazes past the Milky Way!💫🤩
The red color comes from excited atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen, the green from the meteor's magnesium and nickel.
Canon R6, Rokinon RF 14mm f/2.8, ISO3200, 15s, 8/13/23
#MilkyWay
#Astrophotography
#Perseids
Nice case of systemic mastocytosis with an associated hematological neoplasm (SM-AHN). In addition to the plasma cells, you can see spindle-shaped mast cells. The mast cells aberrantly expressed CD2 & CD25. The KIT D816Y mutation was detected.
#hemepath
Awestruck by Ellora Cave 16 (the Kailāśa temple) the largest single monolithic rock excavation in the world. Built between 600 and 1000 CE,
#Ellora
is a
@UNESCO
World Heritage Site.
Some of you saw my photo of the October moon rising over Chicago, and so did the immensely talented
@JayaB_hempath
, who went ahead and painted it! And the painting is far better than my photo. Click on both to see the full picture.
#Pathtwitter
is the best! Love my
#hemepath
fam!
The incredibly intricate and beautiful solar prominences & flares from Monday's eclipse!
The large prominence at the bottom left was visible with the naked eye at totality from our site in Indy!
Canon R6, RF100-500 at 500mm, f/7.1, ISO 400, 1/6400s
#Eclipse2024
#SolarEclipse2024
Jupiter with its four Galilean moons! Imaged through a Sky-Watcher Skymax 127 Maksutov-Cassegrain telescope on a tracked AZ-GTi Mount. I didn't have my adapter & other gear, so took pictures handheld afocally through a 10 mm eyepiece with 2 exposures for this stacked image!
Check this NEW preprint from the University of Nebraska demonstrating that SARS-CoV-2
#COVID19
is present as AEROSOL particles "even in the absence of cough or aerosol generating procedures". AIRBORNE isolation precautions including N95 were protective.
1/2 Look at the southeast sky in the evening and see the magnificent giant gas planets, Saturn and Jupiter. Look closely at this picture and you'll even see Jupiter's Galilean moons! A closer view of Jupiter is in the tweet below. Canon 70D, Tamron 18-400 mm, f/5.6, 1s, ISO3200
#Match2022
applicants having to respond within minutes to interview offers is just nuts. It takes a huge mental toll and applicants live in fear of missing their dream interview. Offer a reasonable time (say 24hrs) and don't overbook. Or some other system. But this is just wrong.
Is social distancing giving you cabin fever? Here's a sure-fire cure! Just look up at the night sky. You are literally looking beyond our world! I took this photo of Orion handheld with my Google Pixel phone this evening! Click for full picture.
#Astrophotography
#FlattenTheCurve
It was cloudy, but I got a tip, rushed outside, and sure enough there was a small clearing and I saw Jupiter, its moons, and Saturn just minutes before they set! Only 2° above the horizon, so not the best resolution due to haze, but some details still visible!
#Conjunction2020
@joshmcgoo
Most of the pseudohyperkalemia is not caused by the lab itself, but by preanalytic factors—mostly patient related variables, specimen collection techniques, and transport issues.
See this comprehensive review:
Total lunar eclipse from Oak Park, IL! Things didn't look good for a while, but the clouds parted and I was able to capture this pic during totality!
Canon R6, Canon Canon RF 100-400mm at 400mm, f/8, 1/15s, ISO3200.
#LunarEclipse2022
#LunarEclipse
#BloodMoon
#Astrophotography
So today on Twitter Spaces I learned that
@DGlaucomflecken
was traumatized by a pathologist who shamed him for not knowing RBCs are biconcave discs.
This will never happen
@LoyolaHemePath
where we aim to educate, not shame!🙃
Still, I apologize on behalf of all pathologists!😀
Just published! My article for
@IMPACT4HC
on pooled testing in COVID-19, written with awesome
@LoyolaHSD
Stritch School of Medicine MS4 student Meghna Agarwal! Pooled testing can help but is not a panacea. Check out the piece for more:
After 25 yrs in the basement, our Flow Cytometry lab moved up today to the 4th floor! The move was flawless thanks to the amazing work by Priscilla,
@wafa_marji
,
@CBasiorka
,
@caroldevery1
, Keisha & others. And this only happened due to the visionary leadership of
@eva_wojcik
!
What's the most important factor when looking for a place to train or work?
I'd say—honest and just leadership.
Nothing matters more.
And if you find yourself struck in a place that has neither, and change isn't happening, LEAVE if you can.
Incredibly lucky to have seen the solar eclipse during my short Bombay trip. What a nice bonus!
It was cloudy, but cleared out before the peak and for the second half. This was taken just after the peak at about 80% coverage.
Canon 70D, Tamron 400mm lens with a solar filter.
Wow, just saw this BEAUTIFUL lunar corona! This is actually a quantum mechanical effect caused due to diffraction of light through water droplets in very thin clouds. Shot hand-held with a Google Pixel 2 phone.
#Moon
#Astrophotography
@DavidBflower
@Todd_Scheve
@neeran
The 2020 ICCS Meeting will be virtual with FREE registration and access to most presentations. An amazing opportunity to hear from the top experts and learn about
#FlowCytometry
! Use the official hashtag
#FlowICCS20
Register here:
Protection is multiplicative. So if a mask provides source control at 80% and respiratory protection at 80%, if both are wearing masks, protection goes from 80% to 96% (1 - 0.2*0.2).
A reminder that "ending mask mandate" does not mean "no one can wear masks". A high-quality mask (N95, KN95, KF94) is highly effective and protects the wearer, even if others are no longer masking.
Some additional points: The 1st person to describe Auer rods may not have been John Auer or even Thomas McCrae, but the great physician Dorothy Reed, who also described the Reed-Sternberg cell in Hodgkin lymphoma! McCrae (but not Auer) certainly thought so.
#WomenInPathology
Back from a late night run and saw this beautiful night sky. Orion on the left, Venus to the right. Look closely you"ll see the Pleiades star cluster above Venus! Nothing like the starry sky to beat cave fever! Shot handheld with my Pixel phone!
#Astrophotography
#FlattenTheCurve
The incredible Blue Ridge Mountains!
Picture taken from the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina during the summer of 2016.
Canon 70D, Canon 55- 250 STM lens at 70mm, f/5.6, ISO100. Three exposures at 1/200, 1/400 & 1/800s, fused.
#NaturePhotography
#Travel
#CanonFavPic
Like no other, the Theranos saga highlighted the importance of our field of laboratory medicine. You NEED competent lab directors, clinical pathologists & medical laboratory scientists. Thanks
@BillGates
for highlighting
@JohnCarreyrou
's Bad Blood.
@kmbernhardt
@kmirza
@BenMazer
Excited to have finally captured Neptune!!
At magnitude 8,
#Neptune
cannot be seen with the naked eye, but is visible through a pair of binoculars or a telescope. One of the four gas giant planets, Neptune's volume is about 57 times that of Earth!
#Astrophotography
#Space
@VanGennepD
@BNODesk
Something that doesn't work (and they likely know it!). Just continuing the long tradition of hygiene theater. During Ebola/Zika we had written about how these measures are not only ineffectual but backfire:
Blown away by the details in this Milky Way picture made by stacking photos in Sequator, a free program that's incredibly easy to use & FAST. All I did was watch a short video by
@AstroBackyard
& I was good to go! Canon R6, RF16mm, ISO2000, f/2.8, 15s, 105 pics, Bortle 4/5 skies.
So I found this gift from
@KMirza
on my desk this morning. A mug based on my "Correlation is not causation" tweet that went viral.
Is there ANYONE who is a better colleague than
@KMirza
? 😀
Link to the tweet:
@MEPFuller
The sensitivity of the test (% with COVID19 who test +) is ~60-70% (depends on test/technique). If the clinical scenario suggests COVID19 there's a good chance you have it even if the test is negative. (Technically, negative predictive value is low if pretest probability is high)
@apoorva_nyc
I don't know if this was their intent, but these guidelines will hopefully prevent unnecessary testing of folks who have recovered from COVID-19. A postive RT-PCR test would be clinically meaningless at least for a few months post-recovery.
Aurora borealis over the Chicago skyline! I've taken pictures of moonrises, sunrises, a comet & a partial solar eclipse over the Chicago skyline (from the same vantage point) but never thought I'd shoot the Northern Lights!
#Aurora
#Auroraborealis
#NorthernLights
#AuroraChicago
Here's an nice paper using a 5-stain T-follicular helper panel (CD10, BCL6, CXCL13, PD-1[CD279] & ICOS). With WHO criteria (≥2 markers +) a LARGE number (41%) of PTCL-NOS cases were reclassified as PTCL-TFH, & all but 1 were positive ONLY for ICOS & PD-1.