A link to the missing index for Biopsy Diagnosis of Peripheral Neuropathy by Bilbao & Schmidt, Springer, 2015 (2nd edition)

Robert Schmidt, MD, PhD

Just got an email from the inimitable Dr. Robert Schmidt of Washington University, St. Louis:

"Due to a publisher's oversight, the second edition of Biopsy Diagnosis of Peripheral Neuropathy by Bilbao & Schmidt, Springer, 2015 was published without an index.... The publisher will not provide a list of people purchasing the book, thereby making it difficult to identify those who would need it."

Dr. Schmidt has asked me to make the index available to those blog readers who find themselves owners of this excellent text. Here is a link for those needing to print out an index to accompany their book.

New York Academy of Medicine hosts "Frontiers in Academic Pathology: Neuropathology with Special Topics in Ophthalmic Pathology"

Just got this message from the illustrious Dr. John F. Crary, neuropathologist at Mount Sinai:

Greetings from New York City.

John F. Crary, MD, PhD

I wanted to call your attention to a special course sponsored by The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai that is certain to be of interest to your readers.  This one day course, entitled “Frontiers in Academic Pathology: Neuropathology with Special Topics in Ophthalmic Pathology,”  will be held Friday, September 16, 2016 at the New York Academy of Medicine – 1216 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10029.  Attendees are eligible to receive 8.25 AMA PRA Category 1 CME Credits.

Mount Sinai has arranged for an exciting program, that covers brain tumors, neurodegenerative disease, and others.  There will be an exceptional lineup of speakers: the brochure and registration information can be found here:  https://cmetracker.net/MSSMCMEB/Catalog

I hope to see you in NYC next September!

Reknowned ophthalmic pathologist
Dr. Ralph Eagle (pictured)
among speakers at course in New York

Best Post of February 2016: Cerebellar dentate neuron undergoing grumose degeneration in a case of progressive supranuclear palsy

The next in our "Best of the Month" series comes from February 1, 2016 and is composed entirely of a photomicrograph of a lone neuron suffering from PSP:

Bodian stain

Photomicrographs of Zika-infected fetal brain

Dr. Cheng-Ying Ho, neuropathologist at Children's National Medical Center in Washington DC kindly provided the photomicrographs below (click to enlarge), which were published with her important case report about which I recently published a blog post.

Thinning (left) with apoptosis (inset left) as compared to relatively spared cerebral cortex (right)

The legend for these pictures is as follows: "In postmortem analyses of samples obtained from the fetus, an area of parietal cortex has abundant apoptotic neurons (Panel A), with detail shown in the inset view. The unaffected occipital cortex is thicker than the parietal cortex (Panel B), as indicated by the vertical bars." 

"Funny worm-like profiles" in a meningioma

Howard Chang, MD, PhD

The illustrious Dr. Howard Chang of Michigan State University recently sent me photomicrographs of a meningioma specimen from the posterior fossa of a 63-year-old female. Within the meningioma were noticed "funny worm-like profiles". The specimen was sent to the Centers for Disease Control, which provided reassurance that these profiles were not parasites. The inimitable Dr. John Donahue wondered whether this was simply embedded ependymal lining. I wondered the same thing. Dr. Chang tells me that GFAP was not ordered by the general pathologist signing out this case. Meanwhile, the eminent Dr. Mark Cohen felt -- despite the CDC's pronouncement -- that the structures did not look human. Please help our colleague Dr. Chang by making any diagnostic suggestions in the comments section.

Zika virus isolated from fetal brain tissue

Cheng-Ying Ho, MD, PhD

Dr. Cheng-Ying Ho, neuropathologist at Children's National Medical Center in Washington DC, recently authored a report in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled Zika Virus Infection with Prolonged Maternal Viremia and Fetal Brain Abnormalities. In this report, Dr. Ho and colleagues describe a case of a pregnant woman and her fetus infected with the Zika virus during the eleventh week of gestation. The fetus had a significantly decreased head circumference by the twentieth week of gestation. Given the grave prognosis, the mother elected to terminate the pregnancy at 21-weeks gestation. Postmortem analysis of the fetal brain revealed diffuse cerebral cortical thinning, a high Zika virus RNA load, detection of viral particles, and isolation of the Zika virus from brain tissue. This is the first report of Zika virus isolation from fetal brain tissue. This finding fulfills Koch's second postulate regarding the isolation of a pathogen from a diseased organism and therefore goes a long way toward strengthening the association between congential Zika virus infection and fetal brain damage. This is an important work from a rising star in the neuropathological firmament. As a fellow neuropathologist commented, Dr. Ho is "a very talented young investigator from whom you will be hearing a lot in the future".

Triennial Meeting of the European Confederation of Neuropathological Societies set for July 6-9 in Bordeaux, France

Dr. Kathy Newell informs me that the abstract submission date for the triennial European Congress of Neuropathology (ECNP) has been extended to April 8, 2016. The Congress website describes the meeting as follows:

The scientific program will cover many aspects of neuropathology and will interact with other areas of neuroscience. Leading neuropathologists and neuroscientists will be invited for plenary lectures. Parallel sessions of symposia and workshops will provide key updates and debate on recent progress in diagnostic neuropathological practice and in other interactive scientific approaches. Abstracts submitted to the Congress will be selected for inclusion in these sessions where relevant. Several sessions on different topics will also permit a large selection of posters to be presented on platform, and a two hours interactive slide seminar will be organized. A wide range of sponsorship opportunities are available, which have been designed to ensure that companies achieve their objectives by participating in the Congress.



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Best Post of January 2016: Assistance Needed for National Prion Surveillance!

The next in our "Best of the Month" series is a guest post by Mark Cohen, MD and Jeff Negrey

An important request from Dr. Mark Cohen and Jeff Negrey on behalf of the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center (NPDPSC):

The NPDPSC serves the United States as the national testing site and repository for tissue samples from suspected cases of prion disease (CJD and others). We accept any autopsy tissues for free-of-charge prion testing. With proper tissue procurement, we are able to diagnose with certainty whether or not prion disease is present; and if so, exactly which form and subtype of prion disease (sporadic vs. familial vs. variant) the patient has. Tissue samples are then stored indefinitely and shared with qualified researchers and institutions around the globe.

In order to provide accurate surveillance of prion diseases in the United States, the NPDPSC needs to test CNS tissue. Patients often pass away in non-hospital settings, and even for those who die in hospital, there is ever-increasing reluctance among medical institutions to perform post-mortem examination on patients if CJD is even considered a possibility. Therefore, the NPDPSC offers financial and logistical assistance to families with loved ones suffering from suspected prion disease to obtain a brain-only autopsy and subsequent testing for CJD free of charge to the surviving family (including transportation to-and-from a regional autopsy site if needed). These procedures are coordinated with the nearest approved regional site willing to perform these procedures.

NPDPSC Staff

Our national network is a group of public and private autopsy providers located across the country. Sometimes procedures are performed in hospital settings; other times they are performed in mortuary settings prior to final arrangements. We are always looking to add autopsy and mortuary professionals to our network. We encourage all hospitals and medical centers to send us tissue samples from possible prion disease cases as part of our mission to identify and contain potential outbreaks of prion disease. However, we also are willing to reimburse individuals or institutions who accept brain autopsy requests on our behalf. We arrange transport of the patient to a pre-designated autopsy site and provide free-of-charge shipping materials for sending tissue.

If you, or someone you know, would like to join our national network of autopsy providers, please contact Jeff Negrey for further information (phone 216-368-1290 or email jtn8@case.edu).