Like a child looking at clouds, when pathologists look at tissue samples too long, apparently they start to see shapes in them. For some reason puppies are especially popular – we’ve previously posted about a tumor shaped like a puppy, and below are two more examples. I guess when your job is diagnosing diseases all day, you find humor wherever you can?
Puppy in a cyst: "I'm trapped! Help please!".
"A cyst is present in Reinke's space in a true vocal cord biopsy.It contains mucus inspisated in a shape resembling a puppy (Figure 1). The cyst is lined by columnar epithelium (Figure 2). We diagnosed it as a Mucus Retention Cyst of the Vocal Cord. Mucus retention cyst of the true vocal cord arises from a blocked mucus-producing gland in this area."
A Well-Differentiated Squamous Cell Basset Hound
"A sad-looking basset hound invading the dermis."
Figure 1. A well-differentiated, but sad-looking squamous cell Basset hound invading the dermis
