Formulating a Diagnosis Flashcards
7 cards from real Physician Assistant practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Formulating a Diagnosis flashcards as text
A 55-year-old man presents with exertional chest pain radiating to the left arm, diaphoresis, and nausea. Which diagnosis should be highest on the differential?
Answer: Acute myocardial infarction
Classic symptoms of exertional chest pain with radiation to the left arm, diaphoresis, and nausea point strongly to acute myocardial infarction as the primary diagnosis.
A PA uses Bayesian reasoning when formulating a diagnosis. Which factor most directly influences the post-test probability of a disease?
Answer: Pre-test probability combined with test sensitivity and specificity
Bayesian reasoning integrates pre-test probability with the likelihood ratios derived from test sensitivity and specificity to determine post-test probability.
Which cognitive error occurs when a PA stops searching for additional diagnoses after identifying one that explains most of the patient's symptoms?
Answer: Premature closure
Premature closure is the tendency to stop considering alternative diagnoses once an apparently satisfactory explanation is found, risking missed comorbidities.
A 28-year-old woman presents with pleuritic chest pain, hemoptysis, and recent long-haul flight. Which diagnosis should be immediately considered?
Answer: Pulmonary embolism
Pleuritic chest pain, hemoptysis, and recent immobilization from a long-haul flight constitute classic risk factors and symptoms for pulmonary embolism.
When building a problem representation, which element best distinguishes it from a simple symptom list?
Answer: A concise synthesis that highlights key epidemiological, temporal, and clinical features
A problem representation distills the case into a one-line synthesis emphasizing the most discriminating features to guide differential diagnosis.
A 67-year-old woman with rheumatoid arthritis presents with acute monoarthritis of the right knee. Which diagnosis must be excluded emergently?
Answer: Septic arthritis
Septic arthritis is a joint-destroying emergency that must be excluded by synovial fluid analysis whenever acute monoarthritis is present, especially in immunocompromised patients.
Which feature on history is most helpful in distinguishing inflammatory from mechanical back pain?
Answer: Morning stiffness lasting more than 1 hour that improves with activity
Morning stiffness lasting over 60 minutes that improves with activity is a hallmark of inflammatory back pain, as seen in ankylosing spondylitis.