I read this link and I'm confused, it says:
To participate in the National Resident Matching Program® (NRMP®) Main Residency Match®, international medical students/graduates must have passed all exams required for ECFMG Certification. If you plan to participate in the 2019 Match (in March 2019) and still need to pass Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS), you should register now to take the examination.
To help ensure that your result will be available in time to participate in the 2019 Match, you must take Step 2 CS by December 31, 2018. If you do not register now and schedule soon, it is possible that you will not be able to obtain a test date in 2018. At the time of this writing, the earliest available test date at any test center is in August 2018.
Link: April 2018 https://www.ecfmg.org/news/2018/04/09/imgs-participating-in-2019-match-should-apply-for-step-2-cs-now/
I plan to apply for matching in 2019, do I need to take the exam in December 2018?
- Sent through email
Hello,
Let me clear terminologies before I start explaining.
Match 2018 means: Application in September 2017, results in March 2018, Residency starts in July 2018.
You said apply for matching in 2019, which means apply in September 2019 for the March 2020 match, yes?
Let's talk about the 2019 match mentioned in the link you sent. It says currently, there will be no availability of testing centres for this year's match (September 2018 application, March 2019 Match, Residency starts in July 2019). The ECFMG website is able to predict the number of applications that they are going to receive. This year, they predict there will be no testing centers available, which is why I am guessing they are asking you to register in April (register now).
Your confusion arises because of two reasons:
You don't know the match terminologies with respect to the year.
You don't know the timeline for the match.
When they mean apply right now and give the exam before December, they are talking as a general mandatory requirement. IT IS A ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE.
To be a competitive candidate, IMGs tend to give the exam in such a way that the results are out before September so that we have all the exam results before the application cycle of the match. IT IS OPTIONAL BUT PREFERRED.
So really, the virtual deadline to give the exam for us is July. We also prefer to graduate before September to get ECFMG certified, however, it's not mandatory.
It is quite vigilant of you to keep an eye out for these notices on the ECFMG website.
Since the dates are not easily available, when you plan to go for an elective, try to register in advance.
If you go to the ECFMG website, there is a site called a step 2 CS scheduling and you can view the dates available at various centres. So register as soon as possible if you want to get your desired dates. Here's the link https://csess2.ecfmg.org/calendar.aspx
PS: The step 2 CS permit is available for one year and it does not expire quickly (compared to other exam permits that expire in 3 months) which is a huge advantage.
So to summarize, July is the ideal deadline for Step 2 CS to get results before September (Application submission). December is the mandatory deadline to get result before February (ROL submission, to be eligible for the match).
Google the step 2 CS reporting schedule to help plan for your match.
https://www.ecfmg.org/news/2018/04/18/results-reporting-schedule-for-step-2-cs/
Hope that helps!
-IkaN
So, this post is the answer to our previous question asked on medicowesome facebook page. Question was
#Medicowesome #Microbiology
A vitreous aspirate from a case of metastatic endopthalmitis on culture yields Gram-positive round to oval cells, 12-14 mm in size. The aspirate on Gram staining show the presence of pseudohyphae. Which of the following is the most likely aetiological agent?
1) Aspergillus.
2) Rhizopus.
3) Candida.
4) Fusarium.
Answer: Option 3) Candida.
Let's analyse the question and extract the information one by one.
So, we get two things from the question.
a) The causative organism has pseudohyphae and
b) It is stained by gram stains.
Among the given options, only Candida can form pseudohyphae. All other options are filamentous fungi forming true mycelia and Candia is the only fungi that are usually gram positive on smears.
Some awesome points that must be known on Candida infections.
1) Candida is unicellular organism belonging to yeast like fungus categories. All Candida species are commensals of humans. So, their mode of transmission is endogenous while most of the fungus have mode of transmission as inhalation.
2) They form pseudohyphae.
3) Candida albicans is different from other candida because :-
a) It forms true hyphae or germ tubes when grown in serum.
b) It forms thick walled large spores called chlamydospores.
c) It is dimorphic. It means it grows as yeast at 37°C and as molds at 25°C.
4) Test to differentiate between C. Albicans and other Candida is called germ tube test or Reynolds Braude phenomenon.
-C. Albicans when placed at 37°C in human serum forms germ cell tubes within 2 hours.
5)Candida albicans is the most common cause of mucosal candidiasis.
6) Candidiasis is the most common systemic mycosis. It is also the most common fungal infection in neutropenic and immunocompetent patients.
7) It causes oral thrush, oesophageal candidasis, cerebral candidasis and pulmonary candidiasis.
Extra information:
Their is one test which I learned online and some people consider it as diagnosis of candida infections.
The Spittle Test:
When you get up in the morning, and before you brush your teeth, eat or drink anything, fill a glass with bottled water at room temperature.
Spit some saliva gently into the glass.
Come back every 20 minutes for the next hour and check for some of these signs.
1) Strings coming down through the water from the saliva at the top.
2) Cloudy saliva sitting at the bottom of the glass.
3) Opaque specks of saliva.
Also, in above question we deducted that the given pathogenic organism is gram stain so we get to learn about stains as well.
Normally, fungi are stained by PAS and methenamine silver but some fungi are stained by special stains like :-
Candida is stained by gram stain.
Cryptococcus is stained by mucicarmine, India ink.
Histoplasma is stained by Giemsa stain.
Thanks for reading!
Ojas Gite.
.
Schizophrenia: Types and Prognosis mnemonic.
So to begin with, Schizophrenia is a psychiatric disorder classified under psychosis.
Psychosis is a mental state involving loss of contact with reality, causing deterioration of normal social functioning.
Features of psychosis are:
Loss of insight.
Marked disturbance in personality and behaviour.
Loss of contact with reality.
Impairment in judgement.
Presence of delusions and hallucinations.
A quick recap : Psychosis is classified as -
• Organic e.g. Substance related psychosis, head trauma
• Major e.g. Schizophrenia, mood disorders
• Third psychosis e.g. delusional disorder, acute and transient psychotic disorders.
There are 7 types of schizophrenia and the mnemonic goes like
PHC (primary health centre) U R SO far
1. Paranoid: The commonest type and good prognosis. The onset is later in life 3-4th decade. Major symptoms are delusion of persecution and grandeur.
2. Hebephrenic: 2nd most common and the worst prognosis. Disorganisation of thought, speech, affect and personality is more prominent than other types. Also there is marked emotional impairment.
3. Catatonic: The best prognosis (especially reactive catatonia). Characterised by marked disturbance in motor activity. Further divided into 3 forms i.e. Excited, Stuporous, and one alternating between the two.
4. Undifferentiated: Where symptoms do not fit in any subtypes.
5. Residual: Chronic type where the positive symptoms vanish and patient is left with 'residual' negative symptoms
6. Simple: only negative symptoms from onset (no positive symptoms at all)
7. Others (f):
Schizophrenia + mental retardation = Pfropf syndrome
Schizophrenia + self-mutilation = Van-Gogh syndrome
Now let us see what exactly we mean by positive and negative symptoms.
Positive symptoms are those psychotic symptoms not seen in normal individuals (of course, haa!) but are “actively expressed” in the patients (something is added extra and so called positive).
Negative symptoms are normally expected behaviours like emotions like feelings thoughts and drives that a normal person experiences are absent in the patient (Normal things are being taken away and so called negative).
That’s all for now,
Stay awesome!
Keep calm and keep studying!
-Ashish G. Gokhale
