by Dr Joanna Lumb, Consultant, Microbiology This article was written in 2014. However, this advice is very relevant, not only to FRCPath, but is transferrable to any exam. Preparing for a professional exam is a long-haul process, taking several months. As such, normal life needs to continue in the meantime – paid employment, on calls,…
Pertussis vaccine Pertussis vaccine is only given as a part of a combined vaccine. Monovalent pertussis vaccines are not available. Vaccines are stored at +2˚C to +8˚C, protected from light. Excess heat – reduces potency and shelf-life.Excess cold/freezing – increases reactogenicity and loss of potency; it may also cause hairline cracks on the ampoule leading…
I regularly ask MoodleCloud members what provides more value to them. From a recent poll, I found that microbiologists preparing for the FRCPath exam using Microregistrar Moodle find the Quick revision summary helpful. All moodle chapters in the next few months will be updated with a quick revision note (yellow box). With this, it will…
This summary reflects my experience with LLMs over the past several months. I have interacted with Gemini (formerly Bard), ChatGPT (including version 4.5), Perplexity, Claude, and Grok3, along with some use of DeepSeek, Mistral, AllenAI, Leonardo, Midjourney and Copilot. Every LLM has its strengths and weaknesses, and no one LLM is the best at doing…
Introduction Microbiology can be a daunting subject for medical students and junior doctors alike to approach. Confronted with masses of information and bacteria names more suited to winning Scrabble competitions, it’s often difficult to know where to start! However, acquiring a good understanding of microbiology can be life-saving for your patients, so it is well…
Nature: Small (Mol weight – 138) phosphoenolpyruvate analogue manufactured synthetically but originally obtained from Streptomyces fradiae and some Pseudomonas sp.A broad-spectrum, a bactericidal antibiotic. Mechanism of action: Inhibit bacterial cell wall formation at a very early stage by inactivating enol pyruvate transferase (MurA).MurA catalyzes the transfer of enolpyruvate from phosphoenolphyruvate to uridine diphospho-N-acetylglucosamine (UNAG), the first step…
Paracoccus yeei is an aerobic Gram-negative coccobacilli typically found in soil and brine. It appears as diplococci and may have a visible vacuole – giving an “O” shaped appearance. It may under-decolourise and appear as Gram-positive cocci. It is oxidase-positive and confused with Moraxella/Neisseria. Identification can be made using automated systems like VITEK-2 GN, MALDI-ToF and DNA…
Types of specimen Cough plates are not recommended. Selective media It contains blood or charcoal or both, along with selective antibiotic supplements – penicillin, cefalexin or meticillin.It should be able to suppress other nasopharyngeal flora. Meticillin is the least inhibitory, and cefalexin is the most. Cefalexin is the drug of choice for selective media in…
