Finding Disease Prevalence Rates

[hrandani]

Frequently on tests we get a lot of questions saying "in disease X, which of the following is the most prevalent complication" "What is the most prominent presentation of disease Y" "A patient presents with X Y Z, he could have any of the following but what's the most likely" or some variation on that theme.

The problem is this sort of statistical, clinical material is rarely mentioned in our lecturers, and only occasionally will I spot something like that scattered in the text. Where am I supposed to be learning this, and what's a good resource for this kind of information? Not sure if it's relevant, but I just began M2. I typically flip through Harrison's, wikipedia, but am only rarely successful in finding anything. Where does everybody learn this stuff?

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[Rollo]

Try Robbins. Lot of times, Robbins will state "the disease's major complication is..."

Harrison's has these too especially in their diagnosis sections.

Also, figure out if there are any gold standard diagnostic tests. Many times, this will give away a cardinal symptom you should be on a lookout for.