Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Submissions: Fever with rash in childhood mnemonic

Mnemonic for fever with rash in childhood is, "MEEK SCREAMER"

Dealing with stress and studying before exams for medical students

"I am overwhelmed with exams. I have an anatomy exam coming up. I am slowly beginning to lose hope. Advice would be very much appreciated, thank you!" -Asked on Tumblr

Medicine does get overwhelming. Mostly because no matter how much you study, you will always feel under prepared. It's normal to feel this way.

But don't let it get to you. This part is important because if you feel hopeless, you won't work as much as you should and the guilt will feedback. You need to break the cycle and focus on what's in front of you. There is always hope.

Take a deep breath. Say this aloud - "I've got this. I can do this."

Exercise. Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people kill exams!
(Do 20 jumps right now and then read further :D )

Laugh. It's a mature defense mechanism. You'll learn it in psychology. (Another reason for you to survive anatomy right now - so you can read new things next year!)
Acknowledge that you're stressed, laugh about it and be okay with it. Or pretend to be. Fake it till you make it. (PS: If you fake laughter, you'll end up laughing for real.)

Smile. Look at this smiley (:
It's smiling at you, please smile back!
Laughing and smiling alone is a HUGE stress buster.

Monday, December 29, 2014

Tissue plasminogen activator mnemonic

Greetings people!

Tissue plasminogen activator is an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin, the enzyme responsible for clot breakdown.

It is used in the treatment of embolic or thrombotic stroke.
Contraindicated in hemorrhagic stroke and head trauma. The antidote for tPA in case of toxicity is epsilon aminocaproic acid.

Mnemonic is, "TPA"

T - Thrombotic and embolic stroke (Use)
P - Plasmin (Mechanism of action)
A - Aminocaproic acid (Antidote)

The dose mnemonic is, "TPA" again!

T for ten:
10% of dose given as bolus.

P mirrored looks like a 9:
0.9 mg/kg dose, maximum 90 mg.

A for an hour:
Rest of the dose is given as an infusion lasting for 60 minutes.

That's all!
-IkaN

Dominant hemisphere and handedness

Hello!
This is practical exam related concept.

In a patient with neurological symptoms, you'd like to know whether the person is left handed or right handed. Why?

Dominant hand is important in medicine because it helps us figure out the dominant hemisphere - especially, in patients with stroke.

People who are right handed have their left cerebral hemisphere dominant. 70% left handed people are left hemisphere dominant.

To figure out handedness, you can ask the person with which hand he writes. If illiterate - You can ask with which hand he prefers to eat, combs hair, etc.

Threading a needle is an excellent way to determine handedness because very frequently people tend to hold the thread in the dominant hand and hold the needle with the non dominant hand.

That's all!
I'm left cerebral hemisphere dominant. You?
-IkaN

Submissions: Microbiology notes

More submitted notes here! :)

Submissions: Cardiovascular system notes

If you cannot read or understand anything or want me to send you a picture of any chart, just let me know! - Dr. Neelofer

Lines of Zahn

Question: Does a recent thrombus contain lines of Zahn?

Asked by: Maham

Answer: Yes.

Submissions: Hematology and Oncology notes

More notes. Yaay! Submitted to us by Dr. Neelofer.

Submissions: Reproductive system notes

These were submitted to us by Dr. Neelofer.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Breath sounds mnemonic

Breath sounds! 

Vesicular sounds:
Inspiration is longer than expiration. No pause in between.
They are normal. 

Mnemonic:
VE is short. (Expiration is short)
VesI is long. (Inspiration is long)

Bronchial breath sounds:
Inspiration and expiration occupy the same duration of time and are separated by a pause. 
Heard in: Consolidation or a large cavity. 

Mnemonic:
B for Bronchial, B for Both are equal.

Broncho-vesicular sounds:
Both are equal with a pause.
Heard in: Bronchial asthma, Emphysema. 
Mnemonic:
The B for Both are equal. The hyphen reminds me of the pause.

That's all!
Everything is awesome :D
-IkaN

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Side effects of atypical antipsychotics mnemonic

Hello!

In this post, I'll be talking about some side effects of antipsychotics and a few mnemonics that help me remember the same!