16 May 2024 (Thursday) - Updating My Atlas

If you look on-line there are many atlases of haematology; websites showing all sorts of weird and wonderful things you see down the microscope. Some are rather obscure and you rarely if ever see these things outside of an atlas. Years ago I started one of my own. It’s nothing special, the photos are rather dreadful, but it is all stuff that I have seen myself. You can see the atlas by clicking here (if you feel so inclined).

I spent a little while this morning updating it with things I’ve seen over the last couple of months.

• Basophilic stippling
• Howell Jolly bodies
• May-Hegglin Anomoly
• Mitotic figures

15 May 2024 (Wednesday) - Wasting My Time

Time for another BTLP-TACT exercise…

I was presented with two cases:

 

40357 – a sixty-six year-old woman in the urology clinic requiring group and save.

She grouped as O Rh(D) Positive with a negative antibody screen.

 

23941 – A twenty-one year-old male in ITU needing group and save and two units of cryo.

He grouped as B Rh(D) Negative also with a negative antibody screen.

Assuming the petty bickering about whether or not cryo was needed (and how much) had already been bickered I looked for two units of B or AB cryo. There wasn’t any, so I didn’t issue any. Bearing in mind it wasn’t needed until tomorrow in reality I would phone NHSBT and have some sent down…

 

I got the thumbs down because I didn’t select cryo for the second patient… even though there wasn’t anything suitable available.

If I’d actually paid anything to use this simulator I’d be asking for my money back.

14 May 2024 (Tuesday) - IBMS Newsletter

The IBMS sent its newsletter today. You can see it by clicking here.
There was talk about two young ladies who have been announced as biomedical scientist of the year, and of a shortlist for other awards. Without wishing to undermine anyone in any way, I’ll make the observation that (not including my at-least-weekly) night shifts I was called out of bed at least twice a week for twenty years, and that demands of the workplace meant that I missed my daughter’s first eight birthday parties. No one even said thank you. And I didn’t really do much that thousands of others didn’t do. But singling out one for praise undermines all the others.
There was talk of the IBMS’s involvement in the London Pride march. Much as I support the rainbow community (with family and friends in it) perhaps the IBMS might concentrate on things more relevant to its core business.
There was talk about the proposed raise in HCPC fees… they go up regardless of how much anyone might whinge.
And as for the Harvey’s Gang lab tours… how has the IBMS managed to take over something which surely must be the job of a paediatric nurse?
 
I suppose it is all about priorities. Mine are clearly sadly at odds with those of my professional body.

13 May 2024 (Monday) - Watch and Wait (!)

#LearningMonday… I hate hashtags with a passion. But the Learning Monday thing is good.

Given that photo it looked like PK deficiency… but the options given were all a tad radical so I plumped for watch and wait… the haemolysis can get less of a problem with age.

And I was right to do so…

 

13 May 2024 (Monday) - New Technology?

The nice people at Ortho turned up at work today, offered us all free food, and gave us a little talk about their latest blood grouping machine.

Personally I quite like the sound of their machine, but the reps are very good at making things sound good, aren’t they?

13 May 2024 (Monday) - Painful Wrist ?

I was looking at the NEQAS parasitology slide today. According to the information given, the patient had a painful wrist. So what? Why mention wrist?
Apparently microfilaria migrate into lesions on the extremities… typically on the knees or in the wrists.
I never knew that… 

9 May 2024 (Thursday) - Oncology Central Update

The nice people at Oncology Central sent their update today. Much of it floew over my head… some stuck though.

 

RNA-LPAs: the latest breakthrough in immuno-oncology?   From 'cold' to 'hot' in just 48 hours. Read about a novel mRNA vaccine technology, which rapidly reprograms the tumor microenvironment, triggering a robust immune response against cancer.

Poster highlights from AACR 2024 READ MORE >>>

Championing diversity and inclusion in neuro-oncology READ MORE >>>

ANKTIVA® receives US FDA approval for bladder cancer subtype READ MORE >>>

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Promising response to vemurafenib and cobimetinib treatment for BRAF V600E mutated craniopharyngioma: a case report and literature review Here the authors report on a case of a patient with a strictly third-ventricle papillary craniopharyngioma with a BRAF V600E mutation. After initial surgery with subtotal resection, the patient demonstrated durable response to targeted BRAF and MEK inhibitor therapy with vemurafenib and cobimetinib, suggesting that targeted therapy may reduce the need for radiation and impact surgical interventions in select cases. MORE >>>

Dabrafenib-trametinib in BRAF V600-mutated non-small-cell lung cancer: a single center real world experience In this study, researchers retrospectively evaluated the effects of dabrafenib/trametinib combination in patients with BRAF-mutated NSCLC. They observed a longer, statistically significant median progression-free survival in patients receiving the combination in first-line vs those in the second/subsequent lines.  MORE >>>

LEAP-014: first-line lenvatinib + pembrolizumab + chemotherapy in advanced/metastatic esophageal squamous cell carcinoma This study outlines the design and rationale for the randomized, open-label, Phase III LEAP-014 study of lenvatinib in combination with pembrolizumab plus chemotherapy in patients with advanced or metastatic ESCC. Overall survival and progression-free survival are the dual primary end points. MORE >>>