05118 - Medical Clinic and Medical Treatment

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student will have the following skills -the ability to analyze and solve the most common and relevant clinical problems of medical interest; -the ability to correctly apply the methodologies to detect clinical, functional and laboratory findings, interpreting them critically, including from a pathophysiological point of view, for the purposes of diagnosis and prognosis, and the ability to evaluate the cost/benefit ratios in the choice of diagnostic procedures; --the ability to analyze and solve clinical problems of a medical nature, evaluating the relationships between benefits, risks, and costs in the light of the principles of evidence-based medicine and diagnostic-therapeutic appropriateness; --the ability to correctly set up a therapeutic program within the most common and relevant clinical pictures of medical interest, knowing how to make choices in the light of the principles of evidence-based medicine.

Course contents

Course contents

Below are the topics that will be discussed in the lessons, but they are not exhaustive because the course contents includes all the pathologies relevant to Internal Medicine.

The objective of the course is to develop clinical reasoning skills in relation to internal medicine issues. This will enable students to adopt a critical approach to collecting medical history, conducting clinical semiological assessments, making differential diagnoses, choosing laboratory and instrumental tests rationally, and approaching therapy and its effects in terms of both efficacy and potential side effects.

MAIN TOPICS

· Acute and chronic renal failure

· Adrenal diseases

· Amyloidosis

· Anemia

· Arterial hypertension

· Ascites

· Atrial fibrillation

· Autoimmune diseases

· Basic EKG interpretation

· Celiac disease

· Chest pain

· Clostridium difficile infection

· Coma

· COPD

· Diabetes and its complication

· Diarrhea and costipation

· Digestive bleeding

· Disseminated intravascular coagulation

· Diverticulosis /diverticulitis

· Dyslipidemia

· Dyspnea

· Dysthyroidism

· Edema

· Endocarditis

· Fever of unknown origin (FUO)

· Focal liver lesions

· H. pylori infection

· Heart Failure

· Hepereosinophilia

· Hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism

· Hyperuricemia and gout

· Hypo/Hyperadrenalism

· IgG4 diseases

· Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD)

· Ischemic Heart Diseases

· Jaundice

· Liver failure

· Malabsorption

· Metabolic syndrome

· Multiple myeloma

· Nephrotic syndrome

· Neuroendocrine tumors

· Osteoporosis

· Pancreatitis

· Paraneoplastic syndromes

· Pelvic pain

· Pleural effusion

· Pneumonia

· Portal hypertension

· Pulmonary embolism

· Pulmonary hypertension

· Respiratory failure

· Rheumatoid arthritis

· Sarcoidosis

· Sepsis

· Splenomegaly

· Stroke

· Syncope

· Thrombocytopenia

· Vasculitis

Readings/Bibliography

Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons including discussion of clinical cases

Assessment methods

There will be a written exam with quizzes and an in-person oral exam.

During the oral exam, students will be given a clinical case outline and asked to demonstrate their ability to perform a differential diagnosis and arrive at a specific diagnosis inductively. They will also be required to explain the therapeutic approach. Alternatively, they may be asked to describe a disease using the standard approach of defining it, discussing its epidemiology and clinical manifestations, and outlining the relevant diagnostic procedures and therapeutic strategies (including the names of the main drugs).

Office hours

See the website of Paolo Muratori

See the website of Elisa Fabbri