pre-clinical cardiology common pimping questions?

[stinglikeabee]

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Yo, I haven't done rotations yet but we have this deal where we shadow a doc once a week for a few months to gain "bedside manner." I got paired with a cardiologist.

Anyone done anything like this? This isn't a full-on rotation, it's just watching a cardiologist interact with patients.

What types of questions come up during the routine check-up for a cardiologist? I was thinking questions relating to auscultation and eliciting symptoms mainly... so I'm sorta brushing up on murmurs and heart disease symptoms. Anything else I might get pimped on?

thanks. ill post a follow up once i start into this and let you know too.

 

[WellWornLad]

auscultations, PMI, S1/2/3/4, left vs right CHF, cardiac anatomy (esp. venous system), EKG (esp. major axis and deviations, lead placement), chest pain differential...all questions I've been pimped on.

 

[IHeartNerds]

if this thing isn't P/F, your school must hate students.

seriously though, you will be expected to know less than nothing. do not waste time boning up on cards, study whatever you're doing in class now. you will have all of this material burned into your limbic system when you get pimped on medicine. and there, having read in advance actually matters for a real grade. 👍

however, i will say, if you've forgotten the chambers of the heart or its basic blood supply (ie, gross anatomy stuff), you might want to read it over to keep from looking like an idiot. big difference between that and the ddx of acute onset chest pain, though.

 

[Droopy Snoopy]

Good basic cardiac phys stuff should get you through. Like pick some point in the cycle and say what's open, what's closed, what's contracting, what's calcium doing, what's sodium doing, where's the impulse, etc. Also fair game might be general concepts like preload/afterload, types of CHF, what murmurs get louder with Valsalva, cyanotic heart conditions, L vs. R shunts.

I wouldn't think he'd expect you to analyze a 12-lead or pimp you relentlessly to come up with a lengthy differential for chest pain, probably just show off a few murmurs and do some general patient interaction.

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

if this thing isn't P/F, your school must hate students.

seriously though, you will be expected to know less than nothing. do not waste time boning up on cards, study whatever you're doing in class now. you will have all of this material burned into your limbic system when you get pimped on medicine. and there, having read in advance actually matters for a real grade. 👍

Yup. Whenever we had these pre-clinical type things, the expectations were extremely low. Don't sweat it.

 

[MediumDef]

Yup. Whenever we had these pre-clinical type things, the expectations were extremely low. Don't sweat it.

I'd definitely be surprised if they actually expected you to know anything and since it's not graded who really cares. Your best bet is to look over the general treatment of cardiac disease-literally spend 30 min reading uptodate or emedicine or something-not to answer any potential Q's but it's easier to remain interested for the few hours you'll be there if you have some context for what's going on.

 

[TexasTriathlete]

You should get this book: http://www.amazon.com/Textbook-Interventional-Cardiology-Eric-Topol/dp/0721694497

And memorize every word in it. Also, make sure you know how to use the AED, and how to do an emergency thoracotomy, just in case one of the patients crashes while the doc is in the bathroom or something.

 

[VoiceofReason]

if you can work up the motivation to treat it as a learning experience that would be cool, and if you can't thats also cool


to be specific though I would review the basic medical physiology topics and some very basic pathophys.

 

[stinglikeabee]

it's p/f but there are written evaluations. Since this is one of the only classes during pre-clinical years that is NOT solely pass/fail, we've been told the written evaluation stands out amongst the "Pass" marks on pre-clinical transcript.

"auscultations, PMI, S1/2/3/4, left vs right CHF, cardiac anatomy (esp. venous system), EKG (esp. major axis and deviations, lead placement), chest pain differential...all questions I've been pimped on."

"probably just show off a few murmurs and do some general patient interaction."

very helpful thanks for the tips. i haven't learned anything about those first few topics; I know the basic physiology which probably won't translate into clinicals very well. yea and not much "patient interaction" time yet so i'll have to rely on my abilities chatting to folks at bars and clubs. i'll go over murmurs that sounds easy enough.

will respond with questions i got asked and pimped on after i've had a few session thanks for the help!

 

[jester384]

I have a similar thing coming up but with a family practice doctor so it'll be interesting to hear about cardiac physical exam questions you get. i too have not done hospital roations, just bookwork and lecture. post back wehn you can thanks