Customer Reviews

First Aid Q&A for the NBDE Part I (First Aid Series) (Pt. 1)

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Inadequate would be something that just doesn't prepare you well enough. Well, this book is worse than that since it has so many errors. I purchased this book in the PDF version. I am currently studying for the Micro/Path section right now and have only done about 40 of these questions. In just 40 questions I have found NUMEROUS errors and discrepancies. Some of the questions do not even correlate with the answer explanations, while other answers are flat out incorrect.

For instance, there is a question about the ACTH test & Addison's disease. The question is fine and the answer choice is correct, however, the explanation for the answer is completely inaccurate. See below.

39.What does the ACTH stimulation test accomplish?

A.Differentiates between primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism

B.Differentiates between hyper- and hypothyroidism

C.Differentiates between Cushing disease and syndrome

D.Differentiates between primary and secondary Addison disease (correct answer)

E.Differentiates between acromegaly and dwarfism

39.The correct answer is D.

The ACTH stimulation test is used to differentiate between primary and secondary Addison disease. Primary Addison is due to autoimmune, infectious, neoplastic, or hemorrhagic damage to the adrenal cortex. Secondary Addison is caused by a decrease in ACTH from the pituitary gland, thus hypofunction of the adrenal cortex. Thus, the stimulation test is accomplished by administering ACTH exogenously to a suspect patient.

(the above explanation is fine, but when they get to the most important part below, they SWITCH the reasoning!)

If cortisol increases, then primary Addison is suspected (adrenal cortex still functioning). If cortisol levels stay the same, then secondary Addison is suspected. This is due to inability of the adrenal cortex to respond to the ACTH.

You can check out these 2 links for a proper explanation if you need it. Basically, primary Addison's is a result of adrenal damage in one form or another, which would make it nearly unresponsive to exogenous ACTH depending on the degree of damage. For secondary (depending on the amount of time the pituitary was in hypofunction), you would see an increase in cortisol in response to injected ACTH.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACTH_stimulation_test

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addison's_disease

So I guess the point of this overly verbose rant is that I personally would like to study in peace and not wonder whether or not the material I am using is correct. And unfortunately this book is riddled with errors.

As it says to review is to go over the details again, which needs a good guidline. this book is a good one for the purpose, not a single book to read to pass the board.

Good luck

First Aid Q&A for the NBDE Part I (First Aid Series) (Pt. 1)

I used this book as a practise for my exam- regretfully, the questions aren't based on exam at all, they are very simple, basic and misguided me into thinking that exam qs are easy, there are very few diagrams/images and no clinical vignette type qs...serious waste of money and TIME..moreover explanations are very abrupt and inadequate, I wouldn't recommend it to any test-takers.

don't waste your money! although it isnt horrible to review the notions, it is filled with mistakes! i'm reading it right now and decided to stop to come write a review since all the mistakes were driving me insane!

This is a good product and complement to the first aid review guide for part I national dental boards.

One thing, Kindle price is the right price for this kind of product. I wish that the Kindle price for the First Aid book would be as reasonable as this one, anyway, you can find errors in it, but at the end tell me a book of this kind that don't. A good extra at the end.

I like the First Aid Series since they help explaining every subject in lay men terms. I found the Q&A Helpful as the same format of questions were on the exam.

Before I get into the bad, just know that this book was a great help and I would recommend anyone studying for Part I of the boards to buy it and use it. Its got 800 review questions, that's a big help. As for the bad, I took every question in this book and the most annoying thing was the blatantly incorrect questions. There weren't alot of them, but there enough to make you want to look up and double check most of the questions. Maybe 20 of the 800 were incorrect. But again, over all the book was a great source and I'm glad I used it to study.

I've never felt so compelled to write a review or to kill something.

This book is an honest waste of your money. Don't even think about buying it!

There are SO SO SO SO many mistakes in the anatomy and microbiology sections.

Example:

Question: Which of the following is TRUE with regard to cellular dysplasia.

Answer: It involves atypical cells WITH invasion

Reasoning: Cellular dysplasia involved atypical cells that DO NOT invade the basement membrane

OMG what?

Just please...there are so many more of these dumb mistakes. Don't buy this book.

I like the book! It's really a great help for successfully passing the NBDE part !. i hope there'll be Part 2! great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!