June 2018—CAP Press released last month a new reference guide, Ultrasound Features of Superficial and Palpable Lesions. It’s small and spiral bound and has a laminated cover and tabs for easy reference. There are 375 images and illustrations in the guide’s 200 pages, a sampling of which are displayed on this page.
Dr. Benedict
CAP TODAY spoke with Cynthia Benedict, MD, ECNU, one of the reference guide’s two authors. (The other is Susan Rollins, MD.) Dr. Benedict is medical director of DCL Pathology LLC in Indianapolis and a former member of the CAP Cytopathology Committee. Here is what she told us.
Who is the intended audience and how is the reference guide intended to be used?
Our intended audience is broad and includes pathology, surgery, and otolaryngology residents; cytopathology and endocrinology fellows; pathologists and cytopathologists who perform palpable FNA and are learning to perform ultrasound-guided FNA; and practicing physicians—pathologists, cytopathologists, endocrinologists, otolaryngologists, surgeons—who perform ultrasound-guided FNA and wish to improve their identification and interpretation of ultrasound images.
This clinical reference guide is designed to provide comparative ultrasound images and abbreviated text for use during superficial and palpable lesion ultrasound-guided FNA procedures. It is a small, concise atlas that serves as a quick reference for normal anatomy and abnormalities of superficial body sites. It is not intended as a diagnostic text or illustrative guide for aspiration cytology, but as a procedural companion that assists procuring clinicians with on-site interpretation of ultrasound images.
What is the source of the images and on what basis were they selected?
The images were collected over several years from cytopathologists who regularly perform ultrasound-guided FNA and include the most commonly targeted superficial organs amenable to ultrasound-guided FNA. The images are not intended to be all-inclusive but to exemplify common appearances of normal structures, inflammatory processes, and benign and malignant neoplasms.
What can you tell us about the content of the reference guide and its organization?
This clinical reference guide includes basic ultrasound principles and terminology, ultrasound characteristics favoring benign and malignant nodules, common ultrasound image artifacts, and detailed anatomic illustrations of neck anatomy, cervical lymph node anatomic locations and surgical levels, thyroid gland, parathyroid gland, and salivary gland. Additional chapters of thyroid gland, parathyroid gland, lymph node, salivary gland, soft tissue, and breast show multiple ultrasound images of common benign, inflammatory, and malignant conditions with bullet point descriptions and clinical pearls, or brief points of clinically relevant information.
What is the one most important thing you would like readers to know about this new reference guide?
It is a collection of ultrasound images that shows normal anatomic structures, as well as representative features of benign and malignant processes that occur in areas amenable to ultrasound-guided FNA, and will help the procuring physician with interpretation and identification of the abnormal area to biopsy.
Is there anything like this on the market?
No, there are no other books in this format with so many ultrasound images showing a range of pathology with bullet point descriptions, medical pearls, and detailed anatomic illustrations. An endocrinology textbook, Thyroid and Parathyroid Ultrasound and Ultrasound-Guided FNA, edited by Duick, Levine, and Lupo, is a good reference on thyroid and parathyroid FNA. However, it is mostly text with some ultrasound images and does not discuss salivary gland, soft tissue, and breast. Also, one of our pathology colleagues, Grace Yang, MD, published Thyroid Fine Needle Aspiration, which includes some ultrasound images but primarily consists of cytology and histology images of thyroid pathology.
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To order (PUB128), call the CAP at 800-323-4040 option 1. The price for CAP members is $92; for others, $115.