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 PA is evaluating a 72-year-old with confusion, fever, and costovertebral angle tenderness. Which diagnosis best explains this triad?
Answer: Urosepsis
Confusion with fever and CVA tenderness in an elderly patient points to urosepsis—a urinary source of infection causing systemic inflammatory response.
Which pattern of joint involvement is most consistent with a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis?
Answer: Symmetric small joint polyarthritis affecting MCPs and PIPs with morning stiffness
Rheumatoid arthritis classically presents with symmetric polyarthritis of the MCPs and PIPs accompanied by prolonged morning stiffness.
A PA applies the principle of parsimony (Occam's Razor) in formulating a diagnosis. What does this principle suggest?
Answer: One unifying diagnosis should explain all of the patient's findings when possible
Occam's Razor in clinical reasoning favors a single unifying diagnosis over multiple separate diagnoses when the clinical evidence supports it.
A 45-year-old woman with a history of migraines presents with a new-onset headache that is different from her usual migraines. What is the most important next step in diagnostic reasoning?
Answer: Treat this headache as a new diagnostic problem and evaluate for secondary causes
A change in headache pattern in a known migraineur requires treating the presentation as a new diagnostic problem to exclude secondary causes such as intracranial pathology.
Which feature distinguishes cardiac syncope from vasovagal syncope during diagnostic formulation?
Answer: Syncope occurring without prodrome during exertion or at rest
Syncope without prodrome during exertion or at rest suggests an arrhythmic or structural cardiac cause and requires urgent cardiac evaluation.
A PA's differential diagnosis is overly influenced by a recently diagnosed patient with the same condition. Which cognitive bias is most likely operating?
Answer: Availability heuristic
The availability heuristic causes clinicians to overestimate the likelihood of diagnoses that come easily to mind, often due to recent or vivid experiences.
A 60-year-old smoker presents with progressive dyspnea, digital clubbing, and bibasilar dry crackles on auscultation. Which diagnosis should be prioritized?
Answer: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis
Bibasilar Velcro crackles, clubbing, and progressive dyspnea in an older smoker form the classic triad pointing to idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.