Basic and Applied Sciences: Anatomy, Physiology, Biomechanics, Kinesiology, Pathology and Pharmacology
What the exam tests
This domain checks whether you can connect structure and function to safe physiotherapy decisions: tissue healing, muscle physiology, joint biomechanics, gait, and the pharmacology that changes exercise tolerance or bleeding risk.
Core rules and concepts
- Healing phases: inflammation (0–5 days), proliferation (about 5 days–6 weeks), remodelling (6 weeks–months). Match load to phase; avoid aggressive stretching in early inflammation.
- Length–tension: a muscle generates most force near resting length; overly short or long positions reduce force.
- Force–velocity: concentric force falls as speed rises; eccentric contractions produce more force but more delayed soreness.
- Gait cycle: stance is about 60%, swing about 40%; double support about 20% of the cycle. Hip abductors control pelvic drop in stance; weakness produces Trendelenburg.
- Drug flags: anticoagulants such as warfarin and DOACs raise bleeding risk with vigorous manual therapy; corticosteroids can make tendons fragile; beta-blockers blunt the heart-rate response to exercise.
Worked example
A 68-year-old with knee osteoarthritis on warfarin (INR 3.2) requests deep transverse friction massage. Reasoning: an INR above the therapeutic range plus anticoagulation means high bleeding risk. Defer vigorous soft-tissue work, check the recent INR and physician advice, and use active exercise, education, and cautious cryotherapy. Document the decision and the advice given.
Traps that cost marks
Confusing open- and closed-chain effects; applying ice beyond the early inflammatory period as if it were a universal cure; ignoring drug effects on exercise response; misreading Trendelenburg as hip adductor weakness rather than abductor dysfunction.