Cytology help please - possible fungi?

RE: Cytology help please - possible fungi?

Aurelia Verdin — Wed, 30 May 2018 04:22:44 GMT

Thanks for the input! We have a dermatologist who comes to the practice once or twice a week, the vet who had taken the samples had put the slides aside for him to look at (which I think was 2 days later), but when he came to look at them there was nothing at all on the slides!

Based on the photos he was wondering about possibly Nocardia. Contamination is definitely a possibility but it seems odd that all the other FNA's from the other lumps did not have any of these things on it.

The lumps were all removed and that one has come back as a melanoma, so maybe they were strands of ruptured melanin?

RE: Cytology help please - possible fungi?

Kate Richardson — Sun, 13 May 2018 09:04:02 GMT

Thanks Jenny, certainly wouldn’t have been high on my differential list but still worth considering

RE: Cytology help please - possible fungi?

Jenny Harris — Sun, 13 May 2018 08:35:45 GMT

I’m sure I read a paper where a dog on immunosuppressants came up in lumps that looked like that, which were fungal.

RE: Cytology help please - possible fungi?

Kate Richardson — Sun, 13 May 2018 08:01:49 GMT

I‘m no cytologist but my thoughts are that if the are hyphae I would be really surprised if they came from the type of lesion you’ve pictured and would vote for contaminant from stain.

As suggested, maybe repeat or biopsy one of the lesions.

Can’t imagine bathing a rhodesian ridgeback twice a week would be fun especially if they turned out not to fungal

RE: Cytology help please - possible fungi?

Liz Barton — Sun, 13 May 2018 00:55:05 GMT

I do a lot of cytology and I'd say good shout! Looks like fungal, but I agree with Beats to be careful of contaminants. If there are a lot of these lesions I would suggest a course of malaseb/coatex medicated baths twice weekly for 2 weeks, see if the lesions resolve. If they're worsening in the mean time repeat FNA's and consider culture also. Make sure you send off fungal cultures; we used to do them in house until we were told how unreliable they are unless conditions are ideal.

RE: Cytology help please - possible fungi?

Beats — Fri, 11 May 2018 09:48:35 GMT

I'm not too sure. Hopefully someone else can assist further.

When I get odd things on FNA, such as potentially unexpected micro-organims, then I tend to repeat it.

The other week I FNA'd a mass and got a tonne of bacteria which I wasn't expecting.

I changed the dye in the pots and repeated a fresh FNA and was normal.

I suspect the contaminants were on the slide I had taken my sample on to in the first place.

If you leave a slide sitting on a table in the lab or consulting room for a week or two and then simply stain it up can be amazing what is found.

As a student, I remember finding a lot of budding yeasts on an aspiration of a lipoma. I'm pretty sure that time came out of the stain/fixative pot.