Histology! Do I need to know it?

[tnfifn]

I attend a Canadian medical school. Histology isn't required and is voluntary. We are tested on basics. I am free for the next 3 days. I was thinking of learning more histology? I am only interested in this if it helps me with understanding. Is histology clinically useful?

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[Evergrey]

I have no idea if histology is clinically useful.. I guess it's nice to understand because it informs your understanding of pathogenesis? But maybe it's only useful if you go into Pathology. I'm just an M1 though so I couldn't really say either way. It is one of my favorite subjects though, so I'm glad we get to learn about it (at my school) for that reason.

 

[DeadCactus]

Understanding the cells that make up various organs and tissues, what they do, and how they're affected by disease is important. Being able to recognize them on an H&E, not so much...

 

[Valadi]

Real hard-core histo people might argue that it helps with understanding disease pathology. And I do remember thinking, "Wow, I wish I paid attention in histo," during our pathology course (which had a lot of abnormal histo slides).

Clinically, is it important? Not so much. At least not when compared with physio, pathophys, pharm, bedside manner, and everything else you could possible think of. Histo is dead last.

 

[DoctwoB]

I can't help but think that path slides and histo are almost vestigial in modern medicine for any non-pathologist. I understand that to a certain extent, it can be a learning tool to help you visualize pathophysiology, but when will a non-pathologist ever use any of it?

With more and more info being crammed into 2 years, and many schools are slimming 2 years to 1.5 or even 1, histo seems like easy dead weight to get rid of, and only hangs around for the sake of tradition.

 

[swamprat]

I can't see how its not important for overall knowledge of a doctor. I think it'd be weird to not have a clue about the microstructure of an organ but be able to identify it grossly. Talk about renal physio and have never seen a real nephron or damage to a zone in liver tissue due to acetaminophen overdose and not have an idea wat that looks like either. Maybe not much clinical relevance except for certain fields but I still think its prob a good thing to have basic knowledge of. Also at least in our school they combine cell biology with it and other stuff that is outside of identifying tissue on slides. Can't speak too much about clinical relevance I guess because im not in my clinical years yet but idk I think there are better classes to cut the fat out of than basic histo.

Edit: I shoulda stated I liked histo lol

 

[turkeyjerky]

Understanding the cells that make up various organs and tissues, what they do, and how they're affected by disease is important. Being able to recognize them on an H&E, not so much...

agree completely. The "practical" portion of histology was completely useless.

 

[Valadi]

With more and more info being crammed into 2 years, and many schools are slimming 2 years to 1.5 or even 1, histo seems like easy dead weight to get rid of, and only hangs around for the sake of tradition.

If pathology is still a residency option in the future (which it always will be), I don't see how they can ever get rid of histo.

I wasn't and am not a fan of having to get through all these 'dead weight' subjects in med school. That being said, it's basic science that separated MD from RN (or DNP..).

 

[Morsetlis]

A non-detail-oriented version of Histo would take you only 3 days to learn anyway. Do you need to know the difference between interlobular ducts and interlobar ducts? Or that the zymogens of pancreatic exocrine acinar cells exit laterally and are linked? Or the difference between the zone of calcification and zone of provisional ossification? Probably not. But it'd be helpful if you can identify leukocytes under a microscope, know what a classical liver lobule looks like, or know how to differentiate between small intestines and large intestines and esophagus 😀

Histo was the easiest class for me... spent about 1 hour studying outside of class to every 4 hours of lecture, and that's with the details that nobody cares about except the course director.

I do agree that it's kind of dead weight, and that you could probably teach Path concurrently with it and not increase the course difficulty of Path by too much.

 

[FIREitUP]

histo is a waste of time. if you're curious look up some slides on the internet.

 

[shandocter]

histo is a waste of time. if you're curious look up some slides on the internet.

Maybe histo is not as important as anatomia，but it is helpful to study pathology.

 

[caffeinegirl]

Although you don't need to know histology in a ton detail if you will become a non-pathologist, the pathology (ie. Photomicrographs of slides if not slides themselves) of certain organ systems is tested on several non-pathology board examinations such as dermatology, endocrinology, neurology, and nephrology. So gaining some sort of understanding is helpful.