Arab Board Family Medicine Clinical flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

First-line hypertension threshold

Office blood pressure of 140/90 mmHg or higher on at least two occasions confirms hypertension; home and ambulatory thresholds are 135/85 mmHg.

Metformin renal cutoff

Metformin is generally avoided when eGFR falls below 30 mL/min/1.73 m²; dose reduction is considered between 30 and 45.

CURB-65 score

Confusion, urea >7 mmol/L, respiratory rate ≥30, low blood pressure, and age ≥65; a score of 0–1 supports outpatient management of pneumonia.

Infant weight milestones

Birth weight typically doubles by about 5 months and triples by 12 months, a useful check on growth and feeding adequacy.

Kawasaki disease criteria

Fever for at least 5 days plus four of conjunctivitis, oral changes, rash, extremity changes, or cervical lymphadenopathy; treat with IVIG and aspirin.

Developmental red flags

No social smile by 2 months, no sitting by 9 months, no single words by 16 months, and no two-word phrases by 24 months warrant evaluation.

Folic acid preconception dose

400 micrograms daily prevents most neural tube defects; 5 mg daily is used for women with a prior affected pregnancy or high risk.

Preeclampsia definition

New hypertension after 20 weeks of gestation with proteinuria or end-organ dysfunction; delivery is the definitive treatment.

Postpartum hemorrhage first step

Uterine atony causes most cases; begin uterine massage and oxytocin, then add tranexamic acid within 3 hours of onset.

Rh immunoglobulin timing

Anti-D is given to unsensitized Rh-negative women at about 28 weeks and within 72 hours after delivery of an Rh-positive infant.

Alvarado score

Clinical score combining migration of pain, anorexia, tenderness, rebound, fever, leukocytosis, and shift; a score of 7 or more supports appendicitis.

Postoperative fever timeline

Fever in the first two days usually reflects atelectasis; days 3–5 suggest urinary or pulmonary infection; later fever suggests wound infection or abscess.

Breast triple assessment

Combining clinical examination, imaging, and tissue sampling achieves very high diagnostic accuracy for a breast lump; ultrasound is preferred in younger women.

Anaphylaxis epinephrine dose

Intramuscular epinephrine 0.01 mg/kg up to 0.5 mg into the anterolateral thigh, repeated every 5–15 minutes if needed; antihistamines are adjuncts.

Sepsis one-hour bundle

Measure lactate, obtain cultures, give broad-spectrum antibiotics, and give 30 mL/kg crystalloid within one hour for septic shock.

DKA potassium rule

Hold insulin and replace potassium if the level is below 3.3 mmol/L, because insulin shifts potassium into cells and can cause dangerous hypokalemia.

PHQ-9 threshold

A score of 10 or higher on the PHQ-9 indicates moderate depression that warrants treatment or referral; scores of 1–4 are minimal.

Serotonin syndrome features

Clonus, hyperreflexia, agitation, and hyperthermia after serotonergic drugs; management is stopping the offending agent and supportive care.

Alcohol withdrawal treatment

Benzodiazepines guided by a withdrawal scale are first-line; give thiamine before glucose to prevent Wernicke encephalopathy in at-risk patients.

Incidence versus prevalence

Incidence counts new cases per population at risk per unit time; prevalence counts all existing cases at a given moment.

Herd immunity formula

The threshold equals 1 minus 1/R₀; for measles with R₀ around 12–18 this requires roughly 92–95% population immunity.

Sensitivity and specificity

Sensitivity is true positives divided by all with disease; specificity is true negatives divided by all without disease.

Lead-time bias

Screening detects disease earlier, so survival appears longer even when the time of death is unchanged by the intervention.

Colorectal screening options

For average-risk adults aged 45–75, options include colonoscopy every 10 years, annual FIT, or stool DNA testing every 3 years.

Adult activity target

Adults should achieve 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity weekly plus muscle-strengthening exercise twice weekly.

SPIKES protocol

A six-step framework for breaking bad news: setting, perception, invitation, knowledge, empathy, and strategy or summary.

Teach-back method

The clinician asks the patient to restate the plan in their own words, confirming understanding better than asking whether they understand.

Informed consent elements

Valid consent requires patient capacity, adequate disclosure of risks, benefits, and alternatives, comprehension, and voluntary agreement.

Root cause analysis

A structured review of adverse events that identifies system-level failures and corrective actions rather than assigning individual blame.

Number needed to treat

The reciprocal of the absolute risk reduction; it estimates how many patients must be treated for one additional beneficial outcome.

Confidence interval meaning

A 95% interval is the range expected to contain the true effect in 95% of repeated samples; crossing 1 for a ratio means no significant effect.

Lidocaine maximum dose

Lidocaine is limited to 4.5 mg/kg without epinephrine and 7 mg/kg with epinephrine to avoid local anesthetic systemic toxicity.

Lumbar puncture level

Insertion is at L3–L4 or L4–L5, below the conus medullaris; raised intracranial pressure or coagulopathy are contraindications.