Things like : the complement system, the clotting cascade, the patterns of inheritance for lots of diseases, chromosomal translocations, TCA cycle, anything related to histology (excluding pathologists of course)...?
just curious. i don't think i will remember any of that stuff by the time i get into residency.
not rattling off the entire complement cascade, for example, but all of these in some way or another do make their pesky appearances in a field like peds (esp at an adademic place...)
in the last year, i can recall: testing complement levels in pts w/suspected immunodef, C3/C4 in suspected glomerular dz, and dx terminal complement deficiency in a pt who presented w/meningococcemia.
inheretance and translocations--useful all the time in nursery and nicu.
TCA--well, i'm going to admit that's a step beyond what i care about, other cycles such as urea cycle disorders, fatty acid and amino acid metabolism are visited (albeit superficially) when those newborn metabolic screens come back abnormal. or that sick infant has a high NH4...
histology--well, rarely, though last year it was kindof cool to see the histology on a patient whom we suspected (and treated appropriately) for atypical mycobacterial lymphadenitis.
i think as long as you have had a foundation at some point, it's always stuff you can go back and revisit when need be. there's only so much random stuff you can cram in your brain, and during internship and residency unfortunately much of that space goes to stupid stuff like the phone number for ultrasound reading room and the name of the woman in the lab who will do add-on tests w/o making you put in an entire new requisition, and which days they serve mac and cheese in the caff.
