EnMed fourth-year student Abigail Roth’s work in an elective pathology course has led to a published journal article and presentation of her findings on a rarely seen case.
The opportunity emerged out of an EnMed course Roth completed while working with pathologists at renowned Houston Methodist Hospital. Roth’s colleagues and mentors in the Department of Pathology and Genomics suggested she delve into an interesting case they had encountered – Papillary Renal Cell Carcinoma with Renal Malakoplakia.
Roth took on the project and spent days culling through the medical literature in an attempt to find anything related. “I discovered just two other cases that had the same combined diseases,” said Roth, who earned a bachelor of science in biomedical engineering at Texas A&M in 2019 before applying to the EnMed program.
The Methodist team encouraged Roth to write up the case to alert other pathologists to be aware that the diseases can occur jointly. The goal would be to prevent misdiagnoses from occurring. The resulting paper appeared in Human Pathology Reports, a leading journal. Roth is the lead author along with Luan Truong, M.D., Methodist Professor of Pathology and Genomic Medicine; Ziad El-Zaatari, Methodist Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology and Genomic Medicine; Haneen Salah, MBBS, Methodist pathology physician resident; and EnMed student Ashmi Patel.
The case details of a woman in her 70s had suffered from urinary tract infections, diabetes and high blood pressure who presented at the hospital after suffering pain and observing blood in her urine. Pathologists who reviewed imaging of the woman’s urinary system and kidneys saw a large renal mass.
Surgeons then decided to perform a radical nephrectomy, or removal of the whole kidney, fatty tissues surrounding it and a portion of the tube connecting the kidney to the bladder. A microscopic analysis of the woman’s diseased tissues spotted malakoplakia present both within the malignant tumor and in portions of kidney away from the tumor itself.
Roth was asked to present her findings at a retreat for young pathologists this past August in San Antonio, an event organized under the auspices of the Texas Society of Pathologists.
“Abigail is a very motivated student and did an excellent job in researching the literature, understanding the case and writing about the disease pathology,” said Dr. Salah. “To be able to write, publish and present this unique case so confidently will help her in her goal of becoming a pathologist.”
For Roth, EnMed has provided knowledge, self-discovery and encouragement from physicians like Dr. Salah and other members of the Methodist Hospital team.
“You may come into the program with one perspective,” she explained. “Then you learn to see things from both the worlds of medicine and engineering. With that knowledge and unique perspective, you can move forward in the world and help make a difference.”
