PathAdvantage Journal
Welcome to our PathAdvantage Journal. We strive to keep you up to date with the latest in testing, treatments, biopsy techniques and clinical management guidelines as part of your patient care team. We also welcome dialogue, feedback and questions from providers on topics you’d like to read more about.
A painless cervical biopsy?
To avoid under-diagnosis of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) or malignancy, liberal (all 4 quadrant) colposcopic biopsies are recommended. However, pain and traumatic bleeding are powerful demotivators to both the clinician and the patient in achieving this goal. A less traumatic biopsy would obviously be more desirable; however, the quality of the tissue sampled would also have to be...
PathAdvantage Now Offers Culture and Sensitivity Testing
PathAdvantage now offers Culture and Sensitivity testing for urinary tract infections and yeast infections. We will be happy to supply you with collection media; there is a urine cup/vial kit available for UTIs, and the same red top swab used for GBS collection can be used for vaginal yeast culture...
My patient has persistent HPV type 16/18 positivity…and has a negative colposcopy?
HPV types 16 and 18 cause 60-70% of cervical cancers worldwide, with the remaining high risk HPV types causing essentially all remaining cases. With the need for stratifying HPV-positive (cytology negative) patients, genotyping for HPV types 16 and 18 has been used to try to help identify women at...
Your patient with persistent, positive high risk HPV…with persistent LSIL…with ASC-H…
One of the greatest challenges in cervical cancer screening is the sensitivity of the Pap test. The addition of high risk HPV to the Pap greatly improves sensitivity, at the cost of specificity. As described in this issue, an attempt at isolating patients at greater risk for advanced cervical...PathAdvantage is ready for yearly changes in patient insurance providers and plans
A Belated Happy New Year from our team to yours! With the New Year come changes to patient insurance providers and plans. PathAdvantage is ready for these changes and, as a reminder, is an in-network participating provider for ALL insurance products and plans. Because we avoid exclusivity agreements, we are uniquely positioned to serve all of your patients, eliminating the need to sort and send...
Meet Dr. Clarissa Herrera
Dr. Clarissa Herrera is the most recent addition to our team of pathologists. Specialty trained and board certified in dermatopathology, she brings her expertise in vulvovaginal disease to PathAdvantage. Outside of PA, Dr. Herrera enjoys spending time with her daughter and husband, as well as home...
Meet Dr. Erika Fong
Dr. Erika Fong is originally from Mexico and came to the US after medical school graduation, where she completed her residency in Houston. Her subsequent surgical pathology fellowship was at Parkland Memorial Hospital, here in Dallas, with an emphasis in gynecologic pathology. Married to a...What about these endometrial cells in my Pap?
The management of atypical, or malignant endometrial cells in a Pap test is obvious; immediate tissue sampling in the form of biopsy or curettage. However, what is the relevance of normal endometrial cells (NEMCs) in a premenopausal patient? NEMCs are routinely seen on Pap tests, particularly when related to menstrual cycle phase; these may be seen up to 12th day of the cycle. (After this 12th...