STEP I Question - Released items

[Oceandust]

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Had one question on the exam asking what is the proper pattern of deposition in SLE, with regard to IgG, Complement, and Fibrinogen.

The answers provided all permutations of positive and negative for each of the three. for example

a. IgG+ Complement+ Fibrinogen+
b. IgG+ Complement+ Fibrinogen-
c....et c etc with obviously one option being no deposition of these three at all.

What's the answer?

 

[Jaded Soul]

I know that immunofluorscence is positive for C3 and IgG. Don't know about fibrinogen, but if I had to guess I would say negative. Didn't the test have an explanation?

 

[kcrd]

I don't know the answer to the question, but kaplan gives you a pdf with explanations to the released items if you subscribe to any of their services. If you don't have kaplan, tell me the number of the question and I'll paste the explanation here.

 

[Oceandust]

i took the practice exam at the Test Center, and i couldn't find the above question on the kaplan thing. think they had a few more questions diff't from the released cd.

i felt the same way...i knew igG and complement were positive, and I didn't know about fibrinogen.....

look forward to your thoughts...

 

[stuckincny]

BRS Pathology mentions that factor XIIa links the complement, coagulation, plasminogen, and kinin systems. So maybe if the complement system is active the coagulation pathway should be as well? I don't ever remember coagulation being a clinical or diagnostic feature of lupus though.

 

[ajl102]

That pdf from Kaplan is for last year's released items, I believe.

 

[kcrd]

They are this year's - the pdf answers match up with the questions that I just downloaded from the nmbe website about a month ago.

 

[ajl102]

Right, the Kaplan pdf and USLMLE pdf match up.

I guess the copyright on the question set is 2002, so the Kaplan file is called S1_2002Released.pdf. The file you get off the USMLE site is called 2003step1.pdf and when you open it, the test has "copyright 2002" on the first page. Maybe there's be a newer one somewhere? Oceandust, where did you get your released items test?

In any case, that SLE question isn't in the released items test available for download off the USMLE site.