Iran Specialty Board Pathology study guide
Iran Specialty Board Pathology · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Iran Specialty Board Pathology examination is the national summative assessment through which physicians who have completed an accredited pathology residency in Iran are evaluated for specialty certification. It is intended for residency graduates preparing to practice as specialist pathologists, and it is administered under the authority of the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education through the Specialty Board Secretariat. The Iran Specialty Board Pathology study guide has 12 sections and about 3,489 words.
01General Pathology and Pathophysiology
This domain tests mechanisms of disease rather than pattern recognition: how cells respond to injury, how inflammation resolves or fails to resolve, and how a neoplasm escapes growth control. Board items in this domain typically ask you to link a morphological finding to a molecular mechanism, or to predict the consequence of a specific defect.
314 words, about 2 min02Surgical Pathology of Organ Systems
The largest scored domain. It tests whether you can commit to a defensible diagnosis and produce a complete, guideline-concordant synoptic report for resections and biopsies across breast, GI, lung, genitourinary, thyroid, head and neck, and soft tissue.
285 words, about 1 min03Cytopathology (Gynecologic and Non-gynecologic)
This domain tests category assignment, adequacy judgement and risk-based triage. The exam expects fluency in the Bethesda System for cervical and thyroid cytology, plus the Milan (salivary) and Paris (urinary) systems, and the practical limits of FNA.
313 words, about 2 min04Hematopathology and Bone Marrow Pathology
This domain tests the path from a complete blood count to a diagnosis: morphologic review of the peripheral smear, iron and reticulocyte interpretation, flow cytometry, and the WHO/ICC classification of myeloid and lymphoid neoplasms. Anemia algorithm: classify by MCV, then use reticulocyte count to separate hypoproliferative from destructive processes.
275 words, about 1 min05Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
This domain tests whether you can interpret a chemistry panel the way a laboratorian does: knowing reference intervals, analytical and biological variation, interference, and the performance characteristics of the assays themselves. Reference intervals are usually central 95% intervals; a result outside them is not automatically disease, and a result inside them does not exclude disease.
282 words, about 1 min06Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Pathology
This domain tests the bridge between the microbiology laboratory and tissue diagnosis: which organism morphology belongs to which class, how susceptibility is reported, and how infection control and biosafety rules apply. Gram stain and culture remain the reference standard for most bacterial infections; MALDI-TOF identifies colonies rapidly, and molecular panels shorten turnaround for fastidious organisms.
272 words, about 1 min07Immunology and Immunopathology
This domain tests the mechanisms of immune-mediated disease and the laboratory tests used to classify them: complement, hypersensitivity reactions, autoantibody profiles, immunodeficiency, and transplant rejection. Hypersensitivity: type I IgE-mediated immediate, type II antibody against fixed antigen, type III immune complex, type IV T-cell mediated delayed.
256 words, about 1 min08Molecular Pathology and Genetics
This domain tests the choice, interpretation and limitations of molecular tests in diagnosis, prognosis and therapy selection, and the standards used to classify variants. Assay selection: PCR/qPCR for known hotspots; Sanger sequencing for single genes; FISH for translocations and copy number; next-generation sequencing for panels, exomes and genomes; MSI or mismatch repair immunohistochemistry as a surrogate for deficient mismatch repair.
307 words, about 2 min09Forensic Pathology and Autopsy
This domain tests the logic of death investigation: distinguishing cause, mechanism and manner, interpreting postmortem change, and recognizing injury patterns that carry legal consequences. Cause, mechanism, manner: cause is the disease or injury that initiated the fatal process; mechanism is the pathophysiologic derangement (arrhythmia, exsanguination, cerebral edema); manner is natural, accident, suicide, homicide or undetermined.
303 words, about 2 min10Laboratory Management, Quality Assurance, and Accreditation
This domain tests whether you can run a laboratory to an accreditation standard: quality control statistics, external assessment, document control, competence, risk management and continuous improvement. Quality control: Levey-Jennings charts with Westgard rules.
285 words, about 1 min11Pathology Informatics and Digital Pathology
This domain tests the informatics backbone of pathology practice: laboratory information systems, image standards, whole-slide imaging validation, structured reporting, and the governance of computational tools. Standards: HL7 carries orders and results between LIS and hospital systems; DICOM, including the whole-slide imaging supplement, governs image storage and transfer; LOINC codes observations; SNOMED CT codes diagnoses.
290 words, about 1 min12Research Methodology, Biostatistics, and Evidence Appraisal
This domain tests whether you can read a paper critically: identify the design, spot bias, compute and interpret test performance, and judge whether the conclusion follows from the data. Designs: randomized controlled trials for interventions, cohort studies for incidence and prognosis, case-control studies for rare outcomes, cross-sectional studies for prevalence, and diagnostic accuracy studies reported under STARD.
307 words, about 2 min