#anatomic pathology

Hey, everyone! Sharing some more pathology fun - sometimes the tissue on slides makes fun images even before you look under the microscope. Maybe I'll make a profile pic out of this one 🤔

Necrosis of the pyramidal neurons

The classic necrotic neuron is the "dead red". Shrunken, angular, and hypereosinophilic (red) with a pyknotic nucleus, scattered dead neurons can be associated with a wide range of neurologic disease. Necrosis of the pyramidal neurons in the hippocampus is commonly associated with seizure activity, particularly in the CA2 and CA3 regions. Whether this necrosis is the cause or effect of the seizure activity is not always entirely clear, although it is typically attributed to the abnormal electrical activity and hypoxia associated with seizures.

If you spay/neuter an animal at the same time as you take the sample you are submitting, the signalment should be listed as INTACT because that's how the animal was when it developed the lesion, and that's what matters for my differentials. You can put in the history that you desexed it at the same time, but I need to know what hormonal influences the lesion was under when it started.