Madurai AIIMS Students Win National Hematology Quiz

Madurai AIIMS Medical College won CASCADE 2026, a national-level hematology quiz held on 1 November at Madurai Government Medical College in Tamil Nadu. The annual competition was organised in memory of Professor G. Thilagavathi, a former head of the college’s pathology department.

Participation and results

For the in-person quiz, 129 teams registered and 106 teams from different states participated. About 70 teams took part in the online quiz. Third-year MBBS student Priya Soni and student Yashasvi Tanwar represented the winning Madurai team. Chennai Medical College placed second, while Sivagangai Medical College finished third.

Important Facts for Exams

• Blood components: Hematology examines blood cells, platelets, clotting factors and haemoglobin, as well as the bone marrow and spleen that produce these components.
• Disorder categories: Hematologic disorders include anaemias, bleeding and clotting disorders, and blood cancers such as leukaemia, multiple myeloma and lymphoma.
• Flow-cytometric analysis: Flow cytometry identifies blood-cell populations using light scatter and fluorescently labelled antibodies, supporting lineage assignment and measurable residual disease assessment in haematological malignancies.
• Marrow sampling distinction: Bone marrow aspirate and trephine biopsy provide complementary samples: aspirate shows individual-cell morphology, while trephine preserves tissue architecture.