Station 5

Increasing weight.. seems to be a simple complaint. At this point when you have that 5 minutes, you must think about several differential diagnoses:

1. Hypothyroidism
2. Cushing's syndrome/disease
3. Metabolic syndrome

Then you must structure your thoughts on how to ask questions and perform physical examination to include or exclude your diagnosis. At the same time, pay attention to her concern (this is VERY important). Don't be to excited to get the diagnosis and forgot about the patient, as this station tests how you interact with your patient.

Once you have the diagnosis, you must get into the aetiology of the diagnosis and later assess the complications of the problem/s.

And this is how the patient may look like...

Photo taken from: http://neuromuscular.wustl.edu/msys/mend.htm

Intermittently, explain to the patient what you think as this is usually what the patient is concern about. Tell the patient if this is serious and how you want to go about after that. REMEMBER NOT TO BE TOO TECHNICAL. If patient understands what you want to do with her, you are doing well!

Share with us how would you approach this.. don't mind having a Q&A session here...

If you notice, this kind of scenario may also appear in your history taking station. So, study smart by studying for both stations at the same time! Good luck!