Histology needed for Boards

[Staphylococcus Aureus]

I've been getting by courses without good competency in histology, is this going to bite back come boards? If so, what are the best resources for high yield conceptual understanding of histology?

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[Redpancreas]

I've been getting by courses without good competency in histology, is this going to bite back come boards? If so, what are the best resources for high yield conceptual understanding of histology?

You can try the BRS or the standard review books but I think knowing what histology is a high yield is tricky and it's one of the few classes that doesn't have a first aid section. Look at the anatomy sections of first aid that talk about micro anatomy (adrenal histology is high yield) to get a good idea. Also, histology at my school serves to teach us lots of biochemistry/cell bio that isn't really histo since it's taught at the beginning of the year.

To directly answer your question, it's not surprising that you've gotten by because histology is a very traditional basic science (that in my opinion needs to be trimmed) and you don't have to know it well because a lot of it (at least at our school) is redone in pathology which is basically "abnornal histology" or "what we really needed to know from histo". All students struggle with ID'ing various structures because it's not your job as a med student to know that and for the boards, there's limited classical findings like Hodgkin Lymphoma cells, Auer Rods, Ground Glass Appearance, etc. that show up on the boards and you'll see them hundreds of times. For all the other details/identification, id imagine you'd learn these skills in a pathology residency. Also, I had this misconception of being bad at histo too because I though that if I was given a slide I'd have to contextualize it and ID structures. Instead, even at a high level, you probably would need to be given the context like this is a glomerular cell and then answer a question more based on cell bio than actual microscopic morphology.

 

[cellsaver]

...I think knowing what histology is a high yield is tricky because it's one of the few classes that doesn't have a first aid section.

meh. First Aid isn't the "standard" for being a physician. If First Aid if your goal, then you have your answer. Then again, First Aid is absolutely awful on Neuro, so should you blow off Neuro?


OP, know Histology well. To understand Histology is to understand Pathology. It was Dr Husain Sattar MD who stated on one of his Pathoma videos that Histology is Preface to Pathology. Then again, Dr Sattar is a giant when it comes to be a stellar, impressive yet humble physician. How can you understand the totality of medicine if you don't appreciate the individual parts? How can you know cancer if you don't understand normal tissue?

"Ross & Pawlina Histology: A Test & Atlas" is probably the best basic medical science textbook available during preclinical years aside from Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease. I think Ross has a newer edition than when I took Histology. Ross's "atlas" is decent (google is the best atlas for histology) but their text/explanation of tissues...A-1.

 

[Redpancreas]

I've been getting by courses without good competency in histology, is this going to bite back come boards? If so, what are the best resources for high yield conceptual understanding of histology?

meh. First Aid isn't the "standard" for being a physician. If First Aid if your goal, then you have your answer. Then again, First Aid is absolutely awful on Neuro, so should you blow off Neuro?OP, know Histology well. To understand Histology is to understand Pathology. It was Dr Husain Sattar MD who stated on one of his Pathoma videos that Histology is Preface to Pathology. Then again, Dr Sattar is a giant when it comes to be a stellar, impressive yet humble physician. How can you understand the totality of medicine if you don't appreciate the individual parts? How can you know cancer if you don't understand normal tissue? "Ross & Pawlina Histology: A Test & Atlas" is probably the best basic medical science textbook available during preclinical years aside from Robbins & Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease. I think Ross has a newer edition than when I took Histology. Ross's "atlas" is decent (google is the best atlas for histology) but their text/explanation of tissues...A-1.

Oh my goodness, get over yourself. I never said that First Aid was the standard to being a physician, I cited the lack of a histology section as a possible reason for why some students (i.e. myself) found it hard to identify what about it was high yield alongside with Histology being packed with a lot of other disciplines at my school. Also, OP directly mentioned board prep so yeah...

 

[tymont12]

Histo is a difficult subject because there's normal, abnormal and then HY disease histo to understand. If anything, understanding normal tissue structure can help you see abnormalities and maybe deduce pathology. For example, you may not have memorized what breast fibroadenoma looks like, but you know that a normal breast isn't usually so fibrous between the ducts, so you know that must be the answer. I began to understand normal by referencing Ross & Pawlina. Just reference it, don't read it front to back.

 

[Azete]

I started going pretty deep into histo and realized along the way that it just wasn't worth it. The stuff that's tested on boards is classical stuff that you'll have seen dozens of times by the time you take it. Beyond that, even if you have no idea what you're looking at, you can still usually the answer the question from other information. In practice it has zero relevance unless you become a pathologist, so you're much better off mastering a different subject if you intend on another field.