Memorizing Numbers for Criteria

[Milotic]

Hey all, MS3 in Internal Medicine. No matter how many times I go over the criteria, there are so many rules for "if the thyroid nodule is >1cm do XYZ." "If the lung nodule is <8mm just wait" etc etc.

Is there a good way to remember all of these number cutoffs for the shelf/Step2? I couldn't really find a good mnemonic online, which is surprising because a lot of criteria already use mnemonics like CURB-65 etc.

Thanks!!

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[Phloston]

Hey all, MS3 in Internal Medicine. No matter how many times I go over the criteria, there are so many rules for "if the thyroid nodule is >1cm do XYZ." "If the lung nodule is <8mm just wait" etc etc.

Is there a good way to remember all of these number cutoffs for the shelf/Step2? I couldn't really find a good mnemonic online, which is surprising because a lot of criteria already use mnemonics like CURB-65 etc.

Thanks!!

Time and repetition. QBank practice questions, lots of them, should drill the stuff in. And I'd use UpToDate alongside your studies.

 

[Jabbed]

Agreed, time and repetition. When in doubt:

<0.8 cm = you're fine
1.0+ cm = biopsy/further imaging
2.0+ cm = cancer

Tons of exceptions of course (non-functioning adrenal nodules <3 cm are likely benign and don't require surgical evaluation). What currently ****s me up is remember different lab value thresholds for different criteria (BUN > 19 for CURB-65, BUN > 25 for Ranson/BISAP). You just have to anki those until they're carved into your skull unfortunately.

For the purposes of shelves the guidelines you have to know are fairly limited: CURB-65, Fleischner, thyroid nodules, Light's criteria (not modified), GCS, and adrenal masses are the only ones that come to mind at the moment. Even for surgery, I've never seen a question that required you to actually know how to score LRINEC, RANSON/BISAP, or PSI. In the hospital, you can just use your phone. The closest thing to an obscure guideline that I came across on the shelf was knowing the threshold for surgical resection of metastatic colon cancer (sub-centimeter met in the right hepatic lobe).