It is easy to be confident that an appropriate body of advice is available to candidates about the content of an examination once you have passed it. Prospectively, the Primary and Final Examinations of the Royal College of Pathologists will appear to most to involve the assimilation of what seems at the time an inexhaustible volume of data, and the recent change in the College examination system has not diminished this concern for the majority of candidates. The guidelines for training for the new Part I examination state that this is the "major hurdle of the MRCPath" and it is clear that it...

Increasing specialisation in pathology reflects the progressive changes in medical practise. The advent of a specialist with a new interest in a hospital or clinic may present the pathologist with a need to extend his or her knowledge to be able to work closely with the clinical practi tioner in order to provide adequate clinical care. Some sub-specialisations are long established, such a one is neu ropathology. However, an exclusive specialist practise is generally con fined to neurosurgical centres and much neuropathology is of necessity, executed by geneni.l pathologists. The areas covered...

Increasingly, pathologists are being confronted with the effects of a number of complex devices on the body. Cardiac pace-makers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, ventricular support systems for the heart are well established, and vascular and other protheses are being used in increasing numbers. New joint systems, contraceptive devices used as drug delivery systems, and the use of new cement materials all provide challenges in terms of their pathology. The articles in this text collectively form a body of information on these devices not available elsewhere and with an up-to-date...

La pathologie vasculaire a ete tres marquee par les progres biologiques de ces vingt demieres annees. Le systeme arteriel est main tenant considere comme un organe a part entiere. Modelee au cours de l'organogenese par les facteurs hemodynamiques, Ie paroi arterielle maintient une structure hautement organisee et des proprietes mecaniques qui dependent directement des conditions de pression et de debit. La monocouche endotheliale developpe 2 une surface de plusieurs centaines de m a l'interface sang-tissu; elle est a la fois un organe endocrine complexe synthetisant de nombreuses proteines...