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🇵🇰 PMDC National Licensing Examination · flashcards
PMDC National Licensing Examination Medicine and Allied Flashcards
52 question-and-answer cards covering Medicine and Allied as it is examined in PMDC National Licensing Examination. 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the Medicine and Allied deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
What reversibility test helps differentiate asthma from COPD?
Asthma shows significant bronchodilator reversibility (FEV1 improves >=12% and >=200 mL after a bronchodilator); COPD shows little or no reversibility (largely fixed airflow obstruction).
Outline the stepwise pharmacologic management of chronic asthma.
Step 1: SABA as needed (now often ICS-formoterol PRN). Add low-dose inhaled corticosteroid (ICS); then add a LABA (combination ICS/LABA); increase ICS dose; add LTRA/LAMA; finally oral steroids/biologics for severe disease.
List signs of life-threatening acute severe asthma.
Silent chest, cyanosis, exhaustion/confusion, bradycardia/hypotension, PEF <33% predicted, SpO2 <92%, and a normal or rising PaCO2 (sign of impending respiratory failure).
What is the main mechanism and most important risk factor for COPD?
Chronic inflammation causing irreversible airflow limitation (emphysema plus chronic bronchitis); the most important risk factor is cigarette smoking (alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency in young/non-smokers).
Which COPD patients qualify for long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) and what is the survival benefit threshold?
Patients with chronic PaO2 <=7.3 kPa (55 mmHg), or <=8.0 kPa (60 mmHg) with cor pulmonale/polycythemia; LTOT used >=15 hours/day improves survival.
What is the CURB-65 score and what does it assess?
A severity score for community-acquired pneumonia: Confusion, Urea >7 mmol/L, Respiratory rate >=30, Blood pressure <90 systolic or <=60 diastolic, age >=65. Each point = 1; higher scores indicate need for hospital/ICU admission.
What is the most common bacterial cause of community-acquired pneumonia?
Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus).
Match the atypical pneumonia organism to its classic clue: cold agglutinins; air-conditioning/water with hyponatremia; bird exposure.
Cold agglutinins/erythema multiforme: Mycoplasma pneumoniae. Air-conditioning/water source with hyponatremia and deranged LFTs: Legionella pneumophila. Bird exposure: Chlamydia psittaci (psittacosis).
Which organism classically causes cavitating pneumonia in alcoholics with 'red-currant jelly' sputum?
Klebsiella pneumoniae.
What organism causes tuberculosis and what stain identifies it?
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, an acid-fast bacillus identified by the Ziehl-Neelsen stain (or auramine fluorescence).
What is the standard first-line drug regimen and duration for drug-sensitive pulmonary TB?
2 months of RIPE (Rifampicin, Isoniazid, Pyrazinamide, Ethambutol) followed by 4 months of Rifampicin and Isoniazid - total 6 months.
Match each first-line anti-TB drug to its key adverse effect: Isoniazid, Rifampicin, Pyrazinamide, Ethambutol.
Isoniazid: peripheral neuropathy (give pyridoxine/B6) and hepatitis. Rifampicin: orange body fluids, hepatitis, enzyme induction. Pyrazinamide: hepatotoxicity and hyperuricemia/gout. Ethambutol: optic neuritis (color vision loss).
What test confirms latent TB infection?
Tuberculin skin test (Mantoux) or an interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA, e.g., QuantiFERON); these indicate immune sensitization without active disease.
Differentiate transudate from exudate using Light's criteria.
Exudate if any: pleural/serum protein ratio >0.5, pleural/serum LDH ratio >0.6, or pleural LDH >2/3 the upper limit of normal serum LDH. Transudate fails all (low protein, e.g., heart failure, cirrhosis); exudate from inflammation/infection/malignancy.
Give two common causes each of transudative and exudative pleural effusions.
Transudative: heart failure, cirrhosis/hypoalbuminemia, nephrotic syndrome. Exudative: pneumonia (parapneumonic), malignancy, TB, pulmonary embolism.
What is a tension pneumothorax and its immediate management?
Air trapped in the pleural space under pressure causing mediastinal shift, tracheal deviation away from the side, distended neck veins, and hemodynamic collapse. Immediate treatment: emergency needle decompression (2nd intercostal space, midclavicular line) then chest drain - do NOT wait for x-ray.
Which patient profile is typical for primary spontaneous pneumothorax?
A tall, thin young male smoker, due to rupture of apical subpleural blebs.
What is the major modifiable cause of peptic ulcer disease and how is it diagnosed non-invasively?
Helicobacter pylori infection (plus NSAID use); diagnosed non-invasively by urea breath test or stool antigen test.
What is the triple therapy regimen for H. pylori eradication?
A proton pump inhibitor plus two antibiotics (typically amoxicillin and clarithromycin, or metronidazole) for 7-14 days.
Compare gastric and duodenal ulcer pain in relation to food.
Gastric ulcer: pain worsens with eating (weight loss). Duodenal ulcer: pain relieved by eating and worse at night/when hungry (weight stable/gain).
What scoring tools assess upper GI bleeding risk?
Glasgow-Blatchford score (pre-endoscopy, predicts need for intervention) and the Rockall score (post-endoscopy, predicts rebleeding and mortality).
Name the most common cause of chronic liver disease worldwide and the classic stigmata of chronic liver disease.
Common causes: alcohol, viral hepatitis (B and C), and NAFLD/MASLD. Stigmata: spider naevi, palmar erythema, gynecomastia, jaundice, ascites, caput medusae, asterixis, and Dupuytren contracture.
How are hepatitis B serology markers interpreted (HBsAg, anti-HBs, anti-HBc IgM, HBeAg)?
HBsAg+: current infection. Anti-HBs+: immunity (vaccination or recovery). Anti-HBc IgM+: acute infection. Anti-HBc IgG+: past/chronic exposure. HBeAg+: high infectivity/active replication.
Contrast ulcerative colitis and Crohn disease by distribution and depth of involvement.
Ulcerative colitis: continuous, mucosal/submucosal inflammation limited to the colon, starting at the rectum. Crohn disease: skip lesions with transmural inflammation anywhere from mouth to anus (commonly terminal ileum), with granulomas, fistulae, and strictures.
What this deck covers
The Medicine and Allied deck follows the PMDC National Licensing Examination Medicine and Allied syllabus — 8 chapters and 30 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 6.5 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 167 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
Medicine and Allied flashcards FAQ
How many Medicine and Allied flashcards are in this PMDC National Licensing Examination deck?
52 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these PMDC National Licensing Examination flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 52-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the Medicine and Allied cards cover?
They follow the PMDC National Licensing Examination Medicine and Allied syllabus — 8 chapters and 30 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.