Pediatrics List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Most Commons in Pediatrics

• Most Common Congenital Heart Lesions
• Left-to-Right Shunts (Breathless)
• VSD (Ventricular septal defect) - 30%
• Right-to-Left Shunt (Blue)
• Tetralogy of Fallot - 5%
• Most common cyanotic heart anomaly with R-L shunt
• Common Mixing (Breathless and blue)
• Atrioventricular septal defect (complete) - 2%
• Coarctation of the Aorta - most common site is ligamentum arteriosum
• More common in males than females (3:1)
• Pathognomonic signs: rib notching on CXR, “three sign” on CTA

Orthopaedics List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Most Commons in Orthopaedics

• Compartment Syndrome
• Most commonly occurs in lower leg following tibia fractures or crash injuries
• Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury - most commonly injured knee ligament
• Osgood Schlatter’s Syndrome - most common in adolescents that are overactive (too many sports)
• Patellofemoral Pain: most commonly caused by anterior knee pain syndrome, chondromalacia patella, patellofemoral osteoarthritis
• Fibromyalgia - most common cause of chronic, widespread pain in the US

Neurology List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Most Commons in Neurology

• Tension Headache - most common type of headache
• Episodic Tension-Type Headache - most common headache subtype (<15 days monthly)
• Migraine - most common recurrent headache disorder
• Medication Overuse Headache (Analgesic Rebound) - most common cause of migraine-like and “mixed” headaches that occur > 15 days per month
• Epilepsy - most common in childhood due to perinatal injury, infection and genetic factors and old age due to stroke, tumors, or dementia
• Seizures
• Most common toxic causes of seizures: drugs, alcohol, and medications
• Most common metabolic causes of seizures: hypocalcemia, hypoglycemia, hyponatremia, hypoxia

Gastroenterology List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Esophageal adenocarcinoma is the fastest growing cancer in the United States. In total, it affects about 1.5 million people per year worldwide and 38,000 in the US alone. There has been a 6-fold increase in the last 3 decades, accounting for 60% of esophageal cancers. This is one puppy you don’t want to mess with; don’t even get me started on colorectal cancer!

Gastroenterology accounts for 10% of the PANCE, so make sure you pay attention during this part of your didactic phase! Knowing that, you had better take a step into gastroenterology with your thinking cap on ready to learn about new disease and therapy that can affect the way you provide care everyday.

Most Commons in Gastroenterology

• Heartburn (pyrosis) - most common symptom of esophageal disease
• GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease) - most common disorder of the esophagus
• Ulcerative Colitis - most commonly affects young adults in 2nd and 3rd decade of life, but 2nd peak in 7th decade
• Most common in N. America, England, N. Europe, and Australia
• More common in industrialized countries
• More common in higher socioeconomic status
• Important: Ulcerative colitis increases the risk of colorectal cancer
• Crohn’s Disease - most common between 15-30 years of age, though can present at any age
• More common in industrialized countries
• More common in higher economic status
• Most common in N. America, England, N. Europe, and Australia
• Skip areas common: The most common distribution pattern of Crohn’s disease is ileocecal, which involves the distal portion of the small intestine (terminal ileum) and the proximal large bowel (40% of patients)
• Most common skin lesions in IBD: pyoderma gangrenosum and erythema nodosum

Pulmonology List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

This topic deserves an introduction. Why? Because it is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. How many of you have ever heard of Lung Cancer Awareness Month? Exactly. That’s probably because Breast Cancer Awareness Month probably stole its light in October. Unfortunately, breast cancer does not cause the most mortality in the United States, lung cancer does; that goes for men and for women. Why is this? Probably because there is not a unified and inexpensive diagnostic screening method for lung cancer as there is for breast cancer. Lung cancer causes almost double the number of deaths per year as breast, colon/rectal, and prostate cancers. Nonsmokers living with smokers have more than a 30% increased risk for developing lung cancer, regardless of whether or not the smoker is physically smoking around the nonsmoker or not. A diet rich in fruits and vegetables may protect against the development of lung cancer in smokers. However, high dose supplements of beta-carotene (also found in carrots) has been shown to increase the risk for lung cancer and is not recommended. So there you go. I have increased your knowledge about lung cancer in a matter of a few minutes. Hopefully now you will remember that every november is Lung Cancer Awareness Month and that you will remember to include lung cancer in your differential and to screen folks for it when necessary.

Most Commons in Pulmonology

• Cough - Most common complaint seen in outpatient setting
• Dyspnea (difficulty breathing) - common complain at emergency department
• COPD - most common respiratory disease; 3rd leading cause of death in US
• More prevalent in males
• Most common cause of COPD - cigarette smoking
• Most common bacterial pathogens in COPD are: Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, and Moraxella catarrhalis
• Asthma - most common in children
• More common in male children
• Prevalence changes to adult women after puberty
• Most common in Caucasians
• Most are categorized as moderate persistent
• More common in obese individuals
• Most common Interstitial Lung Diseases
• (1) Usual Interstitial Pneumonia (idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis) - idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (IIP)
• (2) Sarcoidosis - idiopathic, granulomatous
• (3) Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis (HP) - known cause, granulomatous

Cardiology List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Dear Readers,

Below are the most commons in cardiology that I’ve put together from this block. I’m sure once I enter rotations I will be adding many more. Can I just say that one of my biggest pet-peeves right now is the incorrect pronunciation of medical terms? For example, angina. This word has been produced in two ways by various professors, but there must be a correct way to pronounce it, so naturally, I looked it up. “An-jen-uh” is the correct pronunciation, while “an-jine-ah” is colloquially used, but incorrect.

Cardiology Most Commons

• Most common pathologic process of the pericardium - Pericarditis
• Most common etiology of Acute Pericarditis - coxsackievirus A and B
• Most common cause of death in the U.S. - Coronary Artery Disease (CAD)
• Coronary microcirculation disease more common in women - this is why CAD affects more women than men annually
• Exercise electrocardiography less accurate in women
• More women die each year of CAD
• Most common cause of sudden cardiac death: ventricular fibrillation
• Most common cause of sudden cardiac death in young athletes: hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy (HOCM)
• Hypertension
• More common in women as age increases
• More common in men in young and middle aged people
• More common in African Americans and lower socioeconomic groups
• African Americans develop at earlier age compared to other races
• Secondary HTN - more common in children
• White coat HTN - affects more treated women than men
• HTN is the SECOND most common cause of CKD