1000 EMQs for PLAB

Based on Current Exams, Third Edition

Sherif W. Helmy

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2011
• eBook ISBN: 9781000477139
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Medical Theory, Practice & Reference

The PLAB examination assesses your ability to work safely in your first appointment as a Senior House Officer in an NHS hospital. Are you ready? Comprehensive and completely up-to-date, the Third Edition of this best-selling guide to passing the PLAB is based on actual questions from previous examinations and enhanced by detailed, explanatory answers from the author's extensive clinical experience. Considering a wide variety of topics, the book suggests techniques to answer the extended matching questions by providing focused solutions and explanations. It also highlights clues to the correct response within the question itself. It is highly recommended for PLAB candidates, final year medical students and candidates for the MRCGP.

Themes

Theme: Breathlessness

Options

1. Inhaled foreign body
2. Anaemia
3. Pulmonary oedema
4. Bronchogenic carcinoma
5. Extrinsic allergic alveolitis
6. Pneumothorax
7. Pulmonary embolism
8. Pneumonia
9. Bronchial asthma
10. Pleural effusion
11. Cryptogenic fibrosing alveolitis

Instructions

For each case, choose the single most appropriate diagnosis from the list of options above. Each option may be used once, more than once or not at all.

1 A 52-year-old woman on HRT presents with a swollen left calf, chest pain and shortness of breath.

2 A 78-year-old man has been short of breath for a few weeks. His chest radiography shows a right basal shadow rising towards the axilla.

3 A 54-year-old woman presents with a 9-month history of progressive breathlessness and cyanosis. Clinical examination reveals clubbing and bilateral inspiratory crackles.

4 A 27-year-old farmer presents with fever, malaise, cough and breathlessness, which he has had for a few days. His symptoms were worse in the evening. Clinical examination demonstrated coarse end-inspiratory crackles.

5 A 34-year-old tall, slim porter presents with sudden-onset chest pain and breathlessness. He had had similar episodes in the past.

6 A 76-year-old man presents with acute breathlessness, cough, frothy bloodstained sputum and palpitations. He is apyrexial. O/E: bilateral end-inspiratory crackles. ECG shows sinus tachycardia. Bilateral calf Doppler ultrasound scans reveals no abnormality.

Theme: Liver disease

Options

1. Wilson’s disease
2. Primary sclerosing cholangitis
3. Primary biliary cirrhosis
4. Haemochromatosis
5. Galactosaemia
6. Gaucher’s disease
7. Dubin–Johnson syndrome
8. Gilbert’s syndrome
9. Hepatocellular carcinoma
10. Pancreatic carcinoma
11. Chronic active hepatitis

Instructions

For each case, choose the single most appropriate diagnosis from the list of options above. Each option may be used once, more than once or not at all.

7 A 48-year-old man presents with a dull aching pain in the right hypochondrium, which he has had for 3 weeks. Other complaints include impotence, arthritis, lethargy and weight loss.

8 A 47-year-old alcoholic presents with weight loss, fever, ascites and pain in the right hypochondrium. Abdominal ultrasound shows a focal lesion in a cirrhotic liver. Serum AFP is grossly elevated.

9 A 41-year-old man with known ulcerative colitis presents with progressive abdominal pain and itching. On examination he was jaundiced.

10 A 35-year-old woman presents with jaundice and painless depigmented patches on her hands, neck and face. On examination multiple spider naevi were noted.

11 A 4-week-old baby was seen with vomiting, diarrhoea and failure to thrive. On examination there was hepatomegaly.

12 A 27-year-old nurse presents with jaundice a few weeks after starting oral contraception. She gave no history of exposure to halothane. Hepatitis serology was negative. Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) were normal but urine showed bilirubinuria.

Theme: Causes of haematemesis

Options

1. Duodenal ulcer
2. Vascular malformation
3. Mallory–Weiss tear
4. Oesophageal varices
5. Gastric carcinoma
6. Crohn’s disease
7. Oesophageal carcinoma
8. Haemophilia
9. Gastric ulcer
10. Oesophagitis
11. Meckel’s diverticulum

Instructions

For each case, choose the single most appropriate diagnosis from the list of options above. Each option may be used once, more than once or not at all.

13 A 53-year-old unemployed alcoholic presents with haematemesis, a history of alcoholic liver disease and ascites.

14 A 77-year-old man with a history of dysphagia, mainly to solid food, and weight loss for 4 months.

15 A 59-year-old bank manager with a long history of indigestion presents with haematemesis, severe constant epigastric pain and weight loss.

16 A 34-year-old man presents with haematemesis, a history of back pain, arthritis, diarrhoea and weight loss.

17 A 37-year-old labourer presents to A&E with haematemesis after an episode of severe coughing. On examination he was very drunk and drowsy but there were no signs of chronic liver disease.

18 A 42-year-old secretary presents with haematemesis. She also complains of epigastric pain, which usually occurs at night. The pain is relieved by antacids and is worse when she is hungry.

Theme: Neurological disorders

Options

1. Subdural haematoma
2. Guillain–Barré syndrome
3. Frontal lobe abscess
4. Brainstem haemorrhage
5. Petit mal epilepsy
6. Multiple sclerosis
7. Idiopathic (benign) intracranial hypertension
8. Arnold–Chiari malformation
9. Meningitis
10. Normal pressure hydrocephalus
11. Motor neurone disease

Instructions

For each case, choose the single most appropriate diagnosis from the list of options above. Each option may be used once, more than once or not at all.

19 A 37-year-old engineer who was started on diuretics 2 months ago for hypertension attended a follow-up appointment with his GP and his blood pressure was 190/110 mmHg. His GP requested further investigations, but within 24 hours he was admitted to A&E with ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword to the Third Edition
• Preface to the Third Edition
• About the author
• Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• Themes
• Answers
• Index