The medical student's guide to pathology residency, fellowships, and careers.

Recent studies have shown that relatively few MD, DO, and underrepresented in medicine (URM) students and physicians are matching into pathology residency in the United States (US). In the 2021 Main Residency Match, just 33.6% of filled pathology residency positions were taken by senior year students at US allopathic medical schools. This has been attributed to the fact that pathology is not a required rotation in most US medical schools, pathology is often taught in an integrated curriculum in the US where is does not stand out as a distinct field, and because the COVID-19 pandemic led to a suspension of in-person pathology rotations and electives. Ultimately, many US medical students fail to consider pathology as a career pathway. The objective of this article is to provide medical students with basic information, in the form of frequently asked questions (FAQs), about pathology training and career opportunities. This was accomplished by forming a team of MD and DO pathology attendings, pathology trainees, and a medical student from multiple institutions to create a pathology guide for medical students. This guide includes information about post-sophomore fellowships, 5 major pathology residency tracks, more than 20 fellowship pathways, and allopathic and osteopathic board examinations. This guide also contains photographs and descriptions of major pathology sub-specialties, including the daily and on-call duties and responsibilities of pathology residents. The exciting future of pathology is also discussed. This guide supports the agenda of the College of American Pathologists' (CAP) Pathologist Pipeline Initiative to improve student recruitment into pathology.

Common outpatient diagnoses and associated treatments logged by osteopathic medical students within a geriatric population.

CONTEXT: Clinical clerkships provide osteopathic medical students the opportunity to participate in the diagnosis and treatment of commonly encountered medical conditions. Appropriate management of these conditions may include pharmacotherapy and/or nonpharmacologic interventions, such as osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). Opportunities may exist to expand the utilization of OMT in the management of common conditions, particularly for geriatric patients, who are at increased risk for adverse outcomes from pharmacologic treatments. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to assess the most common diagnoses and corresponding treatments logged by osteopathic medical students within an ambulatory geriatric population. METHODS: Patient encounters logged electronically by osteopathic medical students were retrospectively reviewed to determine the most commonly reported diagnostic codes and their treatments. Logged interventions were filtered to include patients over the age of 65 years who were seen on family medicine rotations within an ambulatory setting. The top 10 diagnoses were sorted and assessed to determine the associated treatments, including medications, procedures, and OMT. RESULTS: Between January 2018 and June 2020, a total of 11,185 primary diagnoses were logged pertaining to the defined patient population. The most frequently documented diagnoses were essential hypertension (n=1,420; 12.7 %), encounter for well examination (n=1,144; 10.2 %), type 2 diabetes mellitus (n=837; 7.5 %), hyperlipidemia (n=346; 3.1 %), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD; n=278; 2.5 %), osteoarthritis (OA; n=221; 2.0 %), low back pain (LBP; n=202; 1.8 %), pain in joint (n=187; 1.7 %), hypothyroidism (n=164; 1.5 %), and urinary tract infections (n=160; 1.4 %). Three of the top 10 logged diagnoses were musculoskeletal in nature (OA, LBP, and pain in joint). Pharmacotherapy was reported as the predominant treatment for musculoskeletal conditions, with OMT being logged as a treatment for 10.9 % (n=50) of those cases. The most commonly logged medication class in the management of patients with those musculoskeletal conditions was nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs; n=128; 27.9 %), while opioids were the second most frequently documented class of medications (n=65; 14.2 %). CONCLUSIONS: Musculoskeletal complaints were commonly logged by osteopathic medical students within the studied population. Opioids were documented as a treatment for musculoskeletal conditions more frequently than OMT. As such, opportunities exist to expand the utilization of OMT during clinical clerkships and to decrease the frequency of prescribed medications for pain management.

Osteopathic students and graduates matching into pathology residency, 2011-2020.

Context: In the past decade, two changes have affected the pathology residency match. First, the American Osteopathic Association (AOA) Match, which did not offer pathology residency, became accredited under a single graduate medical education (GME) system with the Main Residency Match (MRM), which offers pathology residency. Second, substantially fewer United States senior-year allopathic medical students (US MD seniors) matched into pathology residency. Objective: To determine whether there were major changes in the number and percentage of osteopathic students and physicians (DOs) matching into pathology residency programs over the past decade. Methods: Pathology match outcomes for DOs from 2011 to 2020 were obtained by reviewing AOA Match data from the National Matching Services and MRM data from the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). The number of DOs that filled pathology positions in the MRM was divided by the total number of pathology positions filled in the MRM to calculate the percentage of pathology positions taken by DOs. Results: Over the past decade, there was a 109% increase in the total number of DOs matching into pathology residency (34 in 2011 vs. 71 in 2020). During this time, there was a 23.3% increase in the total number of pathology positions filled in the MRM (476 in 2011 vs. 587 in 2020). Thus, the percentage of pathology residency positions filled by DOs increased from 7.1% in 2011 to 12.1% in 2020. The substantial increase of DOs in pathology occurred simultaneously with a 94.2% increase in the total number of DOs filling AOA/MRM "postgraduate year 1" (PGY-1) positions (3201 in 2011 vs. 6215 in 2020). Thus, the percentage of DOs choosing pathology residency has remained steady (1.06% in 2011 and 1.14% in 2020). In 2020, pathology had the third lowest percentage of filled PGY-1 residency positions taken by DOs, out of 15 major medical specialties. Conclusion: The proportion of DOs choosing pathology residency was stable from 2011 to 2020 despite the move to a single GME accreditation system and the stark decline in US MD seniors choosing pathology. In 2020, a slightly higher percentage of DOs (1.14%) chose pathology residency than US MD seniors (1.13%). Overall, DOs more often choose other medical specialties, including primary care. Additional studies are needed to determine why fewer US MD seniors, but not fewer DOs, are choosing pathology residency.

Metabolomics of Prostate Cancer Gleason Score in Tumor Tissue and Serum.

Gleason score, a measure of prostate tumor differentiation, is the strongest predictor of lethal prostate cancer at the time of diagnosis. Metabolomic profiling of tumor and of patient serum could identify biomarkers of aggressive disease and lead to the development of a less-invasive assay to perform active surveillance monitoring. Metabolomic profiling of prostate tissue and serum samples was performed. Metabolite levels and metabolite sets were compared across Gleason scores. Machine learning algorithms were trained and tuned to predict transformation or differentiation status from metabolite data. A total of 135 metabolites were significantly different (P adjusted < 0.05) in tumor versus normal tissue, and pathway analysis identified one sugar metabolism pathway (P adjusted = 0.03). Machine learning identified profiles that predicted tumor versus normal tissue (AUC of 0.82 ± 0.08). In tumor tissue, 25 metabolites were associated with Gleason score (unadjusted P < 0.05), 4 increased in high grade while the remainder were enriched in low grade. While pyroglutamine and 1,5-anhydroglucitol were correlated (0.73 and 0.72, respectively) between tissue and serum from the same patient, no metabolites were consistently associated with Gleason score in serum. Previously reported as well as novel metabolites with differing abundance were identified across tumor tissue. However, a "metabolite signature" for Gleason score was not obtained. This may be due to study design and analytic challenges that future studies should consider. IMPLICATIONS: Metabolic profiling can distinguish benign and neoplastic tissues. A novel unsupervised machine learning method can be utilized to achieve this distinction.

The interaction of pathways to fear in childhood anxiety: a preliminary study.

Recent research has shown that the verbal information pathway to fear creates long-term fear cognitions and can create cognitive biases and avoidance in children. However, the interaction between the verbal information pathway to fear and other pathways is untested. This experiment exposed children (aged 6-8) to threat information about a novel animal to see the impact on a measure of avoidance after a subsequent simulated direct negative encounter with that animal. Results showed that a direct negative experience (without prior information) or threat information (without a subsequent negative experience) produced similar effects, but in combination (verbal threat information followed by a direct negative experience) the effect was significantly magnified. These results support theories of fear acquisition that suppose that verbal information impacts on the strength of associations formed in subsequent conditioning episodes, and suggest that pathways to fear have interactive effects.

Why sinonasal disease spares the inferior turbinate: An immunohistochemical analysis.

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: Clinically, inflammatory polyps are found in the middle turbinate (MT) in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) but not in the inferior turbinate (IT). The purpose of this study was to investigate differences in protein expression between IT and MT tissue in patients with CRS. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective cohort. METHODS: Pathologic specimens obtained from patients with CRS undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery with IT reduction were evaluated by immunohistochemical analysis of inflammatory markers cysteinyl leukotriene 1 receptor (CysLT1R), toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), and vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM1). Protein expression was quantified with nuance multispectral analysis and results compared between MT and IT tissue. RESULTS: The total expression of VCAM1 and CysLT1R was decreased in the IT compared to the MT. There was no difference in total TLR2 expression between the IT and MT. When comparing patients with eosinophilic CRS to noneosinophilic CRS (neCRS), there was decreased expression of VCAM1 in the IT of patients with neCRS. When comparing patients with nasal polyposis to those without polyps, there was decreased expression of VCAM1 in the IT of patients without polyps. CONCLUSIONS: There is a difference in protein receptor expression of VCAM1 and CysLT1R in MT compared to IT tissue. Although the leukotrienes are a well-known target for treatment of chronic sinusitis, this is the first study demonstrating an upregulation of VCAM1 expression in the MT and could be a potential future target for the treatment of CRS. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: NA Laryngoscope, 126:E179-E183, 2016.

Popliteal pseudoaneurysm caused by Nora's lesion of the femur in a young child: a rare presentation and first report.

Bizarre parosteal osteochondromatous proliferation (BPOP), or Nora's lesion, was first described by Nora et al. in 1983 as a rare, tumor-like lesion involving the bones of the hands and feet. Popliteal artery pseudoaneursyms in the pediatric population are also unusual. Here, we present a case of a young male with a popliteal artery pseudoaneurysm and distal femur lesion originally thought to be an osteochondroma. A 10-year old, Caucasian male was referred to our facility following an MRI concerning for a popliteal artery pseudoaneurysm. On physical exam, there was a palpable 5 × 5-cm pulsatile mass in the upper popliteal fossa with a normal pulse exam bilaterally. A computed tomographic angiogram demonstrated a 4.5-cm by 1.8-cm by 3.6-cm pseudoaneurysm adherent to a 3.5-cm thick, exostotic lesion of the posterior right femur. He was taken to the operating room for repair of the popliteal pseudoaneurysm and resection of his bone lesion. The final pathology was consistent with a popliteal pseudoaneurysm, osteochondroma, and bizarre parosteal osteochondromatous proliferation (BPOP), otherwise known as Nora's lesion. The location of the lesion and the age of our patient were both atypical for BPOP and to our knowledge, this represents the first report of a resulting popliteal artery pseudoaneurysm.