Important Topics of Pathology for MBBS Prof Exams

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Important Topics of Pathology for MBBS Prof Exams
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The subject of pathology is quite vast and seems
stressful for MBBS students. But with the proper
preparation plan for pathology tests, you can get
your concepts clear and score well in exams.
Here, we broadly cover the important topics that
usually give way to tricky pathology examination
questions.
But before we delve into the topics that are
important for a Pathology exam, let's understand
the subject first.
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What is pathology? It is a significant subject
in medicine entirely dedicated to finding the
cause of a disease, also known as aetiology, the
way various events lead to disease, i.e.,
pathogenesis, and the histopathological
examination of the condition. Pathology is all
about the diagnosis of a disease. Students
learning pathology gets to answer all the
questions such as, How did it all start? Why is
it at a particular stage? Which pathology tests
are to be performed? And how do pathologists do
this?  
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Well, they work side by side with physicians,
surgeons, and radiologists. They use modern
technologies, including microscopic, immunologic,
and molecular modalities, to determine if any
abnormalities can or have led to disease.
Needless to say, pathologists play a very
important role in the diagnosis and treatment of
patients.
Now, let's move on to the essential topics that
are frequently asked in exams.
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Cell Injury
When a person gets an injury or a bruise, cells
in the body go through several modifications, and
the body usually feels pain or inflammation. It
is this pain that is usually the body's first
response to an injury. Students must study all
about the various kinds of cell injuries,
including free radical injury, pigmentation, and
irreversible cell injury. While studying,
students should also go through questions related
to apoptosis, hyperplasia, metaplasia, necrosis,
and dystrophic and metastatic calcifications.
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Other topics include atrophy, where the cell size
is reduced owing to physiological or pathological
conditions, or the opposite, hypertrophy, where
cells get enlarged, and metaplasia, where cells
convert themselves into a different type of
cell. To prepare questions related to cell
injury, students can go through study material on
the causes of cell injury. For example, the most
widespread cause of cell injury is a lack of
oxygen. One must also study disorders and
nutritional deficits. It is also vital to
understand the scenarios where cells can die due
to an injury.
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Neoplasia
The term neoplasia comes from neoplasm, which
means a tumour mass. Another important topic for
pathology exams, Neoplasia, is all about the
study of the uncontrolled growth of cells.
Examples include tumours and mass lesions. These
growths can be benign as well as
malignant. Benign tumours are those that do not
metastasise to affect the surrounding cells. In
other words, benign tumours are not
life-threatening. Malignant neoplasms, on the
other hand, metastasise to affect the surrounding
cells, causing a disease. Students should
familiarise themselves with these two kinds of
tumours, the hallmarks of a cancer diagnosis.
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Hematopathology
This branch of pathology is all about the
diseases of the cells in your blood. These cells
are the white blood cells, red blood cells, and
platelets. Anyone who has ever gotten a complete
body check-up would be aware of these three
cells. However, students must go deep to prepare
for the pathology exam. They need to understand
the disorders that Hematopathology is related to,
including anaemia, leukaemia, and lymphoma.
Questions related to blood cell morphology and
bone marrow examination are important under this
topic.
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Gastrointestinal Pathology
As the word gastrointestinal suggests, this topic
is about diagnosing non-neoplastic and neoplastic
conditions of digestive organs such as the
oesophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large
intestine. Students must go through questions
related to the gastrointestinal tract, gall
bladder, and liver tumours. Modules of
gastrointestinal lymphomas, peptic ulcers,
inflammatory bowel disease, and cirrhosis are
also important.
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Respiratory Pathology
The diagnosis of respiratory diseasesthis
pathologycan be talked about in the same breath
as asthma, bronchitis, flu, sinusitis, and
influenza. To prepare for this topic, students
must understand the effects of long-term exposure
to substances such as cigarettes and air
pollution. They should also study how viruses
pass through the air passage from one person to
another, replicating themselves while spreading
infections and respiratory diseases.
Post-pandemic, students cannot afford to ignore
research on the causes of COVID-19, how it
spreads, the mechanism of its vaccination, etc.
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Male Genital Tract
This subject includes prostrate pathology,
covering topics such as chronic prostatitis,
nodular prostatic hyperplasia, and
adenocarcinoma. Tumours of the urinary system,
prostate, and testis are also important topics.
Don't skip chapters on the pathogenesis of BPH,
testicular tumours, seminoma, and differentiating
features of seminomatous tumours from
non-seminomatous tumours.
Female Genital Tract
Relevant topics include common infections of the
female genital tract, endometrial hyperplasia and
carcinoma, tumours in the ovaries, sex
cord-stromal tumours, and the normal placental
anatomy.
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Read about cervical cancer, endometriosis,
uterine fibroids, HPV, leiomyoma, and adenomyosis
as well.
Besides going through various study materials
covering topics like cancer pathology, infectious
disease pathology, respiratory pathology,
gastrointestinal pathology, renal pathology,
cardiovascular pathology, infectious disease
pathology, hematopathology, and endocrine
pathology, students must also look at the video
content, which is available online.
Sometimes, written content can be overwhelming,
and mugging up answers is not fun.
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That is when online pathology video
lectures and online pathology MBBS lectures and
notes come to the rescue. Some popular channels
to look out for include Pathology for
UnderGrads by DigiNerve, Pathweb Teacher, and
PathCast. Students find pathology video
lectures very helpful because they are engaging.
In some videos, doctors cite examples from their
own experiences, which is as real as it gets. If
you choose to learn from a good pathology course
online, you also get access to concise notes,
clinical case discussions and practice questions
to escalate your learning.
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And last but not least, dont fret or panic.
Focus on one topic at a time. Go through several
articles.
Remember, Revision and consistency are a must.
All the best! 
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