ⒸPathologynuggets.blogspot.com Notes to review for medical students, residents, and doctors. Risk Factors: Diabetes mellitus, Chronic pancreatitis, Hereditary Pancreatitis, Cigarette Smoking Courvoisier Sign of Pancreatic Cancer: Pancreatic cancer has jaundice which is painless, and gallbladder is palpable below right costal margin. Trousseau Sign of Pancreatic Carcinoma: It is associated with recurrent migratory thrombophlebitis. Other findings suggestive of this cancer are: weight loss, anorexia, dull abdominal pain which is worse at night. Other important associations include new onset Diabetes Mellitus  and non-bacterial thrombotic endocarditis . Diagnosis: Imaging by Ultrasonography or CT scan is test of choice. CT Scan shows "double-duct sign". Definitive diagnosis is by biopsy and histologic examination. If these tests are inconclusive, Endoscopic ultrasound or ERCP with brushings/biopsy for histopathology can be done. Role of CA 19-9 in pancreatic cancer: It does ...

  ⒸPathologynuggets. Notes to review for medical students, residents, and doctors. Vasculitides are autoimmuine disorders characterized by inflammation of blood vessels. Most of them are chronic systemic disorders that affect the multiple systems and should be considered in differential diagnoses of any multisystem illness. Vasculitis can be divided into large vessel, medium vessel or small vessel vasculitis based on the size of the vessels involved. Large Vessel Vasculitis ‌Giant cell arterities or Temporal arteritis Takayasu arterities Medium Vessel Vasculitis ‌Polyarterities Nodosa Kawasaki Disease Small Vessel Vasculitis ‌Granulomatosis with Polyangitis(GPA) ‌Microscopic polyangitis (MPA) ‌Eosinophilic Granulomatosis with Polyangitis (EGPA)               **  Small vessel vasculitides GPA, MPA and EGPA are also known as ANCA                        ...

Diffuse axonal injury is a type of brain injury caused by trauma in cases of sudden acceleration-deceleration. It is commonly seen in cases of high-speed vehicle accidents.  Which areas of the brain are affected by this type of injury? It mostly affects the areas where brain matter density difference is maximum. Therefore, the most commonly affected areas are gray-white junctions. It affects white matter nerve fiber tracts in these regions. Clinical Findings: Although the findings can vary from insignificant to comatose state, most cases are classified as severe with a GCS score of less than 8. Symptoms include  headache,  dizziness,  nausea, vomiting,  loss of consciousness, etc File :  Compare SWI and GRE Trauma.png Source: Karen Tong Author: SBarnes CC  Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported Diagnosis: Diffuse axonal injury is diagnosed clinically. The clinical findings in these patients are out of proportion to CT Imaging findings. The patient is unc...

ⒸPathologynuggets. Notes to review for medical students, residents, and doctors.   Hello, welcome to our new blog post. Today, we are quickly reviewing high yield concepts of Di George Syndrome. Please read till the end of the blog for a bonus mnemonic for this important topic! DiGeorge syndrome, also known as 22q11 deletion syndrome , is a genetic disease caused by deletion of chromosome 22 and results in impairment of the third and fourth pharyngeal pouches . Therefore, the structures developing from 3rd and fourth pharyngeal pouches are affected in this disease. Now lets' look at the structures affected, One of the structures affected is the Thymus gland as you know the thymus develops from the inferior part of 3rd pharyngeal pouch. Next important structures affected are parathyroid glands, because as you all know the inferior parathyroids develop from superior part of 3rd pouch, and superior parathyroids develop from superior part of 4th pouch. Therefore, the affected structu...

ⒸPathologynuggets. Notes to review for medical students, residents, and doctors  Hello! welcome to our new blog post on cardiac murmurs. In this blog post about heart murmurs, we review the most common types of heart murmurs. Murmur is the sound of blood flowing abnormally through the heart valves and most often signs of valve disorders. If you are new to the blog, don't forget to show your support by like and subscribe. Read till the end of the blog for some bonus tips! Now let's continue our review. Normal heart sounds consist of sounds S1 and S2. S1 represents closure of mitral valve and tricuspid valves at the beginning of systole. S2 represents the closure of aortic and pulmonic valves at beginning of diastole. Thus, the interval between s1 and s2 represents systole, and in this interval systolic murmurs are heard Similarly, diastolic murmurs are heard at the interval between s2 and s1. So, what are the most common types of heart murmurs? For easy understanding, we can di...

Overview Asthma is a reversible airway disease.  Recurrent episodes of dyspnoea, cough, and wheeze  Caused by reversible airway obstruction. Asthma has 3 contributory factors: bronchial smooth muscle contraction mucosal swelling/inflammation increased mucus production All these factors result in airway narrowing. Public Domain File: Asthma attack-illustration NIH.jpg Symptoms Dyspnoea or shortness of breath --- Intermittent wheeze, cough (often nocturnal) Diurnal variation -- symptoms vary over day, Marked morning dipping of peak flow can occur Precipitants: Cold air, exercise, allergens -- dust, pollen, mites History of family history of atopy Drugs: Aspirin, B-blockers Occupational Asthma are symptoms better on days away from work? are symptoms better when on holiday/vacation? Drug-Induced Asthma Aspirin B-blocker Signs Tachypnea Audible wheeze, Hyperresonant, Hyperinflated, widespread polyphonic wheeze listen to wheeze here Severe attack: unable to complete sentences PR>...

 There are three types of  ion channels in cells of human body. They are as follows: 1. Ungated Ion Channels or leak channels     These channels are always open and there is free diffusion of ions through these channels along the concentration gradient of the ions. Leak channels are responsible for maintenance of Resting membrane potential of a cell. 2. Voltage gated Ion Channels Voltage gated ion channels respond to the change in resting membrane potential of the cell. These channels either open or close based on the voltage of the resting membrane potential. 3. Ligand gated ion channels These ion channels have a additional binding site for ligands and open or close based on weather the ligand is attached or not. Ligands act as keys and the channels act as locks.   A receptor can act as one of the types. NMDA receptor is an exception. NMDA receptor can act both as voltage gated and ligand gated channel.

  X-ray : basic interpretation X rays are one of the most frequently requested investigations and their interpretation is one of the fundamental skills of every doctor. In this blog series, we look into the basic interpretation of chest x-ray. If you have no or little knowledge regarding the interpretation of x rays   then it will give you a solid foundation upon which you can build your further knowledge. figure. x-ray source, detector, patient in between less dense like air=black,  more dense like bones=white,  moderate dense like water=grey   parts of the film -                 where x ray struck: black     where x rays are blocked/ no x ray struck: white     where some amount of x ray struck: shade of grey spectrum: radiolucent to radiopaque ( air, fluid, and soft tissue, bone, metal) there are 3 types of views for x ray:  ·  ...