CICM Second Part Exam Practice SAQs 11112015

Here are the practice questions from this week’s written exam practice at The Alfred ICU, with recommended reading from Lifeinthefastlane.com’s Critical Care Compendium and (this week) ICM Case Summaries:

Q1.

a) A 30 year-old woman presents with abdominal pain and paraesthesia. She was diagnosed with CML 2 months previously and is being treated with chemotherapy.

These are her blood test results:

data interpretation 20151111

Source: http://lifeinthefastlane.com/oncology-quandary-005/

  1. Describe the abnormalities and give the likely pathophysiological explanation for each. (35%)
  2. What specific therapies (other than resuscitation and supportive care) are appropriate? (35%)

b) Regarding patients with haematological malignancies admitted to ICU:

  1. List 3 likely reasons for an overall improvement in mortality over the past 20 years (15%)
  2. List 3 important risk factors for increased mortality in this patient group (15%)

Learn more here:

Q2.

Discuss how your approach to cardiac arrest occurring in a post-cardiac surgery patient in the ICU differs from the standard ALS approach. (100%)

Learn more here:

Q3.

An obtunded patient on the ward is found to have hyperammonaemia.

  1. List the differential diagnosis for the underlying cause(s) of hyperammonaemia (40%)
  2. List investigations that are useful for determining the underlying cause (20%)
  3. Discuss the pros and cons of serum ammonia as an investigation in patients with encephalopathy (40%)

Learn more here:

You can access all the previous practice questions since 2014 here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Ta8IvVaVtc5Il7-kJwj6qKGu54OmifJGRUWCXud8dY/edit

See this link on INTENSIVE for exam resources:
https://intensiveblog.com/resources/#3

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