Multiple-Choice Questions in Medical Physiology

Multiple-Choice Questions in Medical Physiology: Table of Contents Chapter Frequently used abbreviations 2 minutes please General Physiology Nerve, Muscle, Synaptic Physiology and Neurotransmission Central Nervo ...

Multiple-Choice Questions in Medical Physiology: Table of Contents Chapter Frequently used abbreviations 2 minutes please General Physiology Nerve, Muscle, Synaptic Physiology and Neurotransmission Central Nervous System Endocrinology and Reproduction Gastrointestinal Physiology Blood and Cardiovascular Physiology Pulmonary Physiology Renal and Acid-Base Physiology Frequently used abbreviations aka – also known as BP – blood pressure CSF – cerebrospinal fluid ECF – extracellular fluid Hb – hemoglobin Hct – hematocrit ICF – intracellular fluid ISF – interstitial fluid MAP – mean systemic arterial pressure MCQ – multiple-choice question PCV – packed cell volume RBC – red blood cell SVR – systemic vascular resistance T/F – True or false TPR – total peripheral resistance (aka. Systemic vascular resistance) WBC – white blood cell WNL – within normal limits 2 minutes please Think of this book as a tool to help you assess how well you have learnt medical physiology. It has been written primarily for use in revision courses for doctors who are preparing for competitive postgraduate medical entrance examinations in India, but undergraduate medical students and postgraduate physiology students, may also find this helpful. The intent here is to use multiple-choice questions (MCQ) as a means to help the reader revise key facts, test understanding of concepts and the ability to apply them. Many questions that I have seen appear on entrance examinations test conceptual understanding and meaningful learning. However, depending on the exam, some test knowledge of facts that are not of significance to a practicing primary care physician, and an undesirable backwash effect of this is it tends to encourage rote learning over indepth learning of important concepts. In writing this book, I have focused on the immediate ‘learning needs’ of the target audience, which is to be successful on these exams. I’ve frequently included questions solely for learning and systematic revision of certain topics. Thus, not all questions are written to be equivalent in standard to questions commonly appearing in entrance examinations. That being said, the difficulty level of questions varies from one exam to another with some predominantly testing recall of facts whereas others test knowledge and understanding and the ability to apply concepts and solve problems. Just to be clear, no attempt is made here to be comprehensive. Summaries of certain topics can be found at the start of each section. I’d suggest giving the summaries a quick read before doing questions and explanations (for questions) that may be found in summaries upfront are not repeated. As MCQs with multiple correct answers enable more material to be revised with fewer questions, I have also frequently used such questions; this helps us get into and sustain the important habit of carefully reading all options in a question. Furthermore, some entrance exams use the multiple true-false type of MCQ, so some practice with this type of question is needed.