Pathology- exploring human disease

[Cuddlekins]

Hi all,
I was wondering if any of you guys have the lecture notes from last year (PATH20001)? or list of topics covered in this subject? I'm not sure as to whether i want to do this subject- the subject guide is very vague on the areas to be covered.


Thank you!!

[jasrulz63]

Last year we did;
Injury, inflammation and repair
Immune response (defensive mechanisms - innate/adaptive defences, immune mediated diseases)
Blood (bleeding, clotting, thrombosis, embolism and infarction)
Blood vessels (hypertension, atherosclerosis)
Abnormalities of cell growth (disorders and pathobiology of cancer)
Lifestyle and disease

Overall it was quite an interesting subject, though the pace is quite quick sometimes. Exam was reasonable. It's all one lecturer apart from blood vessels (3 lectures) and abnormalities of cell growth (2 lectures).

[Cuddlekins]

Cheers for the information, jasrulz. Do you happen to have any of the pre readings for this? I can acess the prescribed textbook online via the melb uni library website and was hoping to read the relevant sections. Thanks once again! Excited for this subject already :DDD

[Russ]

If you -really- want to do prereadings for pathology (whyyyyy) then I'd learn chapters 1 and 2 of it really well

The hardest part of path is the fundamentals, the specific disease states and adaptations are much easier if you understand the underlying process and how inflammation works.

[Starlight]

Excited for this subject already :DDD

Excited for uni? Whaaa?

[jasrulz63]

I agree with Baby Spice the Donk said (lol!), both reading chapter 1/2 and whyyyy. Understanding the fundamentals takes a bit of time, but you need to know it to help understand the mechanisms.

I'll list the other references we were given in case you still wanted to know (Robbins Basic Pathology 8th ed);

Injury, inflammation and repair - chapter 1-3
Immune response - chapter 5
Blood - chapter 4
Blood vessels - chapter 10
Abnormalities of cell growth - chapter 6

[Cuddlekins]

Excited for this subject already :DDD

Excited for uni? Whaaa?

Haha I'm just weird. and yeah thanks for the contributions.  The pre- readings will definitely help kill some boredom during the holidays

[stonecold]

I agree with Baby Spice the Donk said (lol!), both reading chapter 1/2 and whyyyy. Understanding the fundamentals takes a bit of time, but you need to know it to help understand the mechanisms.

I'll list the other references we were given in case you still wanted to know (Robbins Basic Pathology 8th ed);

Injury, inflammation and repair - chapter 1-3
Immune response - chapter 5
Blood - chapter 4
Blood vessels - chapter 10
Abnormalities of cell growth - chapter 6

WHAT!!!!

We covered at least half of this stuff in like 10 lectures in biomed... the pace is ridiculous, but the standalone subject probably isn't so bad.  Then again, Vicki Lawson probably takes it, so it would still be bad.

And again...WHY???  Pathology is awful.  :/

[simpak]

Everyone just says pathology is awful. It makes me glad I won't be here, otherwise I'd be too tempted to take it.

[Richiie]

After reading this thread, maybe I won't choose this subject..

[Slumdawg]

Okay, if Vicki is lecturing (which I think she is) you're gonna need to prepare for her to mispronounce something literally every 30 seconds. Makes it almost painful to lectopia her lectures... HOWEVER one major positive was that her exam questions were by far the most fair and straightforward if you did the work. If you're interested in some disease processes like inflammation, you'll learn that sorta stuff in a lot of detail. Overall, even though heaps of people hated path I think it's better than many of the other subjects you could be doing in sem 2. Some people have said if you wanna do med it could come in handy a little bit but that's just word of mouth and I'm sure Russ (aka baby spice) will have something to say about that Have a look at the readings in the textbook and that should give you a good idea of what you'll be learning!

[Russ]

If you're choosing a major solely on relevance to med, do microbiology/immunology.

[claireb]

If you're choosing a major solely on relevance to med, do microbiology/immunology.

Why do you think microbiology/immunology is more relevant to med than pathology? I want a major relevant to med but one that also has plenty of options should I not get into med. At the moment I am leaning towards pathology.

[Russ]

In terms of options should you not get into the MD, pathology doesn't really have more per se than micro/immuno. You can always not do breadth in 3rd year and take subjects from both (or if in Biomedicine, do the Defense and Disease major if you're keen).

As for why it's more relevant, two reasons (this is my opinion). One is that pathology is almost universally taught badly because of the nature of the content. And two is that in the first year of the MD, there are far more people wishing they'd studied micro than path. You can, in theory, pick up pathology quickly if you understand the basics as per my comment earlier about getting the fundamentals down. I spend pathology practicals working with some friends rather than sticking solely with the prescribed notes because it works for us better that way.

In contrast, microbiology (and immunology) is a clusterfuck of specific information eg; know that E coli stains gram negative, is a rod, is a lactose fermenter and grows pink on MAC agar, is 80% of UTI infections etc. And then repeat for other organisms. And then throw the immune system in and it gets even worse. I'd rather have the knowledge base for the very specific information that just requires memorization than the conceptual stuff that requires a deeper understanding.

[claireb]

Thanks, definitely something to consider- either as a major or a few subjects in that area.