Welcome to Pathology Student!
My name is Kristine Krafts, MD, and I love teaching pathology.
If you’re looking for straightforward answers to your pathology questions,
you’ve come to the right place!
How to read a bone marrow biopsy
There are several things you should look for when evaluating a bone marrow biopsy specimen - see if you can see them in the image above. First, take a look at the cellularity. The white spaces are fat cells that have washed out during processing; the cells in between...
How to identify toxic changes in neutrophils
Much of the time, when a patient has a neutrophilia, it is due to infection. But are there any clues on the blood smear that would make that diagnosis more definitive? Well, yes, as a matter of fact, there are. These clues are called toxic changes and they encompass...
Teardrop red cells
The four main myeloproliferative disorders share several similarities such as a hypercellular marrow, a high white count with a left shift, and splenomegaly. But there are distinct morphologic and clinical differences too; that's why they have been separated into four...
Metaplasia vs. neoplasia
Q. My professor asked this on an exam: What's the difference in molecular mechanism between metaplasia and neoplasia? A. Metaplasia is the changing of one cell type to another. The term is used most often in reference to epithelial cells, for example, when the normal...
Four similarities shared by all myeloproliferative disorders
There are four major types of myeloproliferative disorders: chronic myeloid leukemia, chronic myelofibrosis, polycythemia vera, and essential thrombocythemia. Each has its own particular morphologic and clinical characteristics, and we'll discuss them individually...
How to tell apart CML and benign neutrophilia
We've talked already about how you'd differentiate chronic lymphocytic leukemia from a benign lymphocytosis. So how about the same thing for the myeloid series, namely, how do you tell apart chronic myeloid leukemia from a benign neutrophilia? Chronic myeloid leukemia...
How to tell apart CLL and benign lymphocytosis
Q. If you have a blood smear that shows a lymphocytosis, and all the lymphocytes look pretty mature, how do you know whether it's chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or just a plain old benign lymphocytosis? A. Good question. There are several things you can do. 1....
What does the bleeding time really measure?
Here's a very good question about the diagnostic use of the bleeding time. Q. I'm currently studying heme for boards and came across a practice questions that used platelet count, bleeding time, PT and PTT values to differentiate between certain diseases/problems. I...
What do normal red blood cells look like?
Before you can really appreciate pathologic changes in red cells, you need to know what normal red cells look like. Â Here is a normal blood smear image, taken at high power. There are several things to notice here. First, the cells are nicely spread across the field....