Which one of the following is not associated with hypocalcaemia combined with a raised phosphate level?
Correct Answer D: Osteomalacia causes hypocalcaemia associated with a low serum phosphate, rather than a raised phosphate level.
Hypocalcaemia: causes and management: The clinical history combined with parathyroid hormone levels will reveal the cause of hypocalcaemia in the majority of cases.
Causes:
Acute pancreatitis may also cause hypocalcaemia. Contamination of blood samples with EDTA may also give falsely low calcium levels.
Management:
A 40-year-old man presents with pain in his lower back and 'sciatica' for the past three days. He describes bending down to pick up a washing machine when he felt 'something go'. He now has severe pain radiating from his back down the right leg. On examination he describes paraesthesia over the anterior aspect of the right knee and the medial aspect of his calf. Power is intact and the right knee reflex is diminished. The femoral stretch test is positive on the right side.
Which nerve root is most likely to be affected?
Correct Answer E:
Lower back pain: prolapsed disc:
A prolapsed lumbar disc usually produces clear dermatomal leg pain associated with neurological deficits.
Features:
The table below demonstrates the expected features according to the level of compression:
The muscarinic acetylcholine receptor is an example of a:
Correct Answer D:
Membrane receptors: There are four main types of membrane receptor: ligand-gated ion channels, tyrosine kinase receptors, guanylate cyclase receptors and G protein-coupled receptors.
1- Ligand-gated ion channel:
2- Tyrosine kinase receptors:
3- Guanylate cyclase receptors:
4- G protein-coupled receptors:
An endocrinologist performs a study to assess whether a patient's HbA1c level is correlated to their LDL level.
Assuming both HbA1c and LDL are normally distributed, which one of the following statistical tests is it most appropriate to perform?
Correct Answer B:
Correlation:
Pearson's product-moment coefficient test is most appropriate as the data is parametric and the study is assessing the correlation of two variables.
McNemar's test is a non-parametric method used on nominal data to determine whether the row and column marginal frequencies are equal.
Significance tests: types:
The type of significance test used depends on whether the data is parametric (something which can be measured, usually normally distributed) or non-parametric.
Parametric tests:
Non-parametric tests:
Paired data refers to data obtained from a single group of patients, e.g. Measurement before and after an intervention. Unpaired data comes from two different groups of patients, e.g. Comparing response to different interventions in two groups.
During which of the following stages of mitosis does chromatin condense to form chromosomes?
Correct Answer C:
Cell division: There are two types of cell division; mitosis and meiosis.
Remember:
Mitosis: Mitosis occurs during the M phase of the cell cycle. It describes the process in which somatic cells divide and replicate producing genetically identical diploid daughter cells. This allows tissue to grow and renew itself. During the S phase of the cell cycle the cell prepares itself for division by duplicating the chromosomes.
The table below shows the phases of mitosis itself:
Click to expand