Pathology cases — Asteroid body

Asteroid body in a giant cell from a lung of an intravenous drug abuser.   Birefringent debris from dirty injections are obvious.

For those who don’t know, an “asteroid body” is an inclusion in a giant cell that has a kind of spiky star shape.   When I was in training, we were taught to think of sarcoidosis when we saw them, but in fact they are pretty nonspecific.  I mostly see them in dead drug users.

 

 

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