Pathology

“Disease may be defined as 'A change produced in living things in consequence of which they are no longer in harmony with their environment.” - William Thomas Councilman, Disease and Its Causes

To me the nature of Pathology is an exact opposite to its counterpart, Physiology that tries to explain the normal functions and mechanisms of our body and its parts while Pathology studies the origin, nature and causes of diseases.

Though I find Pathology a challenging subject, I am very much aware of its importance in preparing me as a medical doctor whom its ultimate purpose is to be able to identify and treat diseases. A disease has many and different possible causes, complications, signs and symptoms based on its severity or stages of its development. To make it more complicated, a lot of diseases share the same or similiar causes, complications and morphology. As medical students, we are expected to learn and be able to differentiate one disease from another in order to advice the proper and correct diagnosis and treatment, a process known as differential diagnosis. This is where Medical Pathology comes in - a subject that offers a glimpse of different diseases and pathological conditions based on their

pathogenesis, microscopic and gross morphology, signs and symptoms as well as possible complications.

In Foundation block, I was struggling in Pathology due its confusing and vast amount of information that needed to be understood and memorized. But I realised that creating summarized short notes on each topic helped apart from having discussions with my friends after class. Visiting the Pathology museum also allows my friends and I to appreciate more on the morphology of different diseases like mycordial infarction, left ventricular hypertrophy of the heart and many more. On the other hand, Pathology lab sessions allow us to study the microscopic morphology of diseases and I find it really helpful in my studies by comparing the normal microscopic findings with the pathological ones.

Please click here to view the Pathology Gallery