Muscle pathology: Teaching opportunities and stategies in a pathology department in Singapore

Abstract

S S159 recurrences were detected among the remaining patients during the follow up period. Conclusions: Our series suggest that recurrence can occur in extrapleural SFTs even with low risk features. The treatment of choice is complete resection followed by extended follow-up surveillance. 125. MUSCLE PATHOLOGY: TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES AND STATEGIES IN A PATHOLOGY DEPARTMENT IN SINGAPORE Kong-Bing Tan, Yoke-Sun Lee Department of Pathology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University Health System, Singapore Background: Muscle pathology is a highly sub-specialized discipline in histopathology. While it does not generally feature prominently in routine histopathology practice or in fellowship or board examinations, some training exposure to the discipline for histopathology trainees is often deemed desirable. In Singapore, histopathology trainees are given exposure to the discipline through sessions in the national training programme, intradepartmental neuropathology teaching as well as opportunistically during work at pathology departments. Implementation: During recent national training programme teaching sessions, muscle pathology was introduced via a lecture on the general approach to muscle biopsy interpretation and a separate presentation of short clinico-pathological cases with quizzes. Conditions covered include muscular dystrophy, mitochondrial myopathy, central core myopathy, glycogen storage disease, polymyositis, disuse atrophy and neurogenic atrophy. In our department, trainees undertake structured training in the major subspecialties of histopathology, including neuropathology. They receive weekly illustrative slides for preview, culminating in a multi-header teaching session with the teaching pathologist. For neuropathology, a session on muscle pathology is included. During routine pathology work, muscle biopsies are channeled to the subspecialty pathologists for reporting. When interesting or diagnostically-typical cases are encountered, they are shared with trainees and interested colleagues. Conclusions: Through the above teaching opportunities, trainees acquire a working knowledge of muscle pathology. From informal feedback, they appear to particularly like the casebased quiz teaching format. Many feel the discipline is relevant to their overall training in histopathology while some, if given the opportunity, may consider developing subspecialty interest in muscle pathology, auguring well for the future of the discipline. 126. PATHOLOGY OF SURGICALLY EXCISED PRIMARY CARDIAC TUMORS: A REVIEW OF 39 YEAR SINGLE INSTITUTION EXPERIENCE