Which lab values would you memorize for the test?

[metalrex]

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Hey guys ,hope your study is progressing well.

I wanted to know which lab values should one memorize for test day? I am thinking of the following:

pH, pco2,po2,K+,Na,HCO3-,pressures in heart chambers,CSF pressure, blood and urine osm, PT, aPTT,BT

Usually these help me arrive to an answer without having to pull up and search that annoying lab values tab.

What else would you chip in?

Thanks! 👍

 

[MilkmanAl]

All of them. You need to know them for next year anyway.

 

[metalrex]

Yeah, these are gonna be crammed for sure, I wanted to see if someone had anything more to add to the list.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Look at a table of lab values, and add whatever isn't in your list. Voila!

It'd help you more to know them rather than cram them. They're in enough questions that you should be very familiar with most of the things you'll need by test time if you do enough UW work.

 

[Captain Fantastic]

On my exam, the only values I needed to have memorized were acid base and heart pressures. The rest were either in the reference table or the normals were included in the vignette. Of course, since there are different forms YMMV.

 

[Domenech]

Also throw in Calcium and Phosphate levels. Urea, Blood Urea Nitrogen and Uric acid might be important to know too.

 

[aashkab]

haha yeah i know the values pretty much too by now but when i take tests and throughout the year, i just have to double check, lol, even like sodium levels because its right there. i either need to get out of the habit of this or prepare for it on exam day.

 

[kryptik]

anyone has a mnemonic or memory aid for the heart chamber pressures?

 

[Rabbit Hole]

All of them. You need to know them for next year anyway.

Look at a table of lab values, and add whatever isn't in your list. Voila!

It'd help you more to know them rather than cram them. They're in enough questions that you should be very familiar with most of the things you'll need by test time if you do enough UW work.

I've noticed that some lab values show up often enough that it's easier to memorize them instead of having to waste time going to the lab chart. Before I do a set of UW questions I write down some normal lab values from memory and I'm going to do the same thing on the real exam.

It really helps with the renal and respiratory questions for me.

 

[aashkab]

are the cholesterol values in the FRED format?

i'd hate to not pick Niacin cause i didn't realize this dude had low HDL's but normal LDL's or something.

 

[metalrex]

anyone has a mnemonic or memory aid for the heart chamber pressures?

Maybe you should put this down to those geniuses at the mnemonics thread that's up.

 

[killinsound]

anyone has a mnemonic or memory aid for the heart chamber pressures?

i learned the rule of fives for the right side of the heart.

ra .. rv ... pa
5, 25/5, 25/10

as for lab values, the only ones i know are

Na, K, osm, Ca, platelet, WBC, creatinine, and BUN

I tend to look everything else up, but usually those are the only ones that matter in a question.

 

[kryptik]

thanks killinsound

 

[badasshairday]

are the cholesterol values in the FRED format?

i'd hate to not pick Niacin cause i didn't realize this dude had low HDL's but normal LDL's or something.

You need to know those. Not just for this test. But in general.