February 19, 2011
School of Medicine, Kochi
Doctors at the Department of Pathology at the Amrita School of Medicine received several honors at the 66th IAPM Kerala Chapter Meeting and the 7th National CME of Pathology jointly conducted during February 12-14, 2011 at Thrissur Medical College.
Posters presented by the department’s postgraduate students and faculty were awarded prizes.
Dr. Divya S. (final year DNB trainee) and Dr. Rohit R. S., (first year DCP student) won first prizes and Dr. Sali Kurian (final year DNB trainee) and Dr. Sreekala Sreehari (senior specialist) won second prizes for their respective posters on the first and second days of the conference.
“Our students and faculty won the best poster awards from among 81 posters displayed at the conference,” proudly stated Dr. Annie Jojo, Professor and Head of the Department of Pathology at Amrita. “We have now won prizes for our posters for the 6th consecutive year.”
Dr. Divya’s poster titled Neighbour’s (Microbiologist’s) Pride, Owner’s (Pathologist’s) Dilemma spotted Candida tropicalis, a species of medical yeast pathogen, in the bone marrow.
“Candidiasis is one of the most common causes for nosocomial infections,” stated the poster. “Being the second most frequently encountered medical pathogen next to Candidiasis albicans, Candida tropicalis is now emerging as a major cause of septicemia and disseminated candidiasis.”
Dr. Rohit’s award-winning poster titled A Pregnant Pause discussed the case of a 27-year-old female patient diagnosed with ovarian tumor during pregnancy.
The poster highlighted aspects of an ovarian tumor in this setting. “The tumor was diagnosed as mixed germ cell tumor which has a poor prognosis. However, the tumor is highly responsive to platinum based chemotherapy.”
Second prizes for poster presentations were bagged by Dr. Sali Kurian and Dr. Sreekala Sreehari.
Dr. Sali’s poster titled Hooked by Tape presented the detailed case study of a 50-year-old patient with hydatid disease of the urinary tract, which was not suspected clinically and is a very rare site of presentation.
Dr. Sreekala’s poster titled Think Broader, Look Farther described the case of a 51-year-old female diagnosed with metastatic lobular carcinoma to the sphenoid sinus confirmed immunohistochemically as primary from breast. It also discussed the dilemmas related to the diagnosis and the routes for the spread of the tumor.
Apart from these award-winning posters, postgraduate students and faculty also presented several papers and cases, all of which were received very well for their content and clarity.
Dr. Seethalekshmi N. V., Professor at the Amrita Department of Pathology Department, was feted as the youngest moderator in the history of IAPM Kerala Chapter meetings till date, She moderated seminars on renal pathology.
