Sudden episodes of racing heart and fear - GP

CurtinYear 510 min + 2 min readingMental healthStandardPre-internship
  • Focused history
  • Request investigations
  • Dx + differentials
  • Initial Mx

Ready

2 min reading, 10 min station, warning at 2 min

Focus the timer and press Space to start or pause.

Station - Instructions for candidate

You are a final-year medical student on placement in a general practice in Armadale. Your supervising GP has asked you to see this patient first.

Deng Deng, 27, has booked a long appointment because of four months of sudden episodes of a racing heart and breathlessness. Results from an Emergency Department visit and from tests your supervisor ordered last month are on the practice record.

Practice recordED attendance 2 months ago: ECG and troponin normal, discharged. Last month: TSH 1.9 mIU/L, free T4 14 pmol/L, FBC, UEC, calcium and fasting glucose all normal. No regular medicines. No allergies. Non-smoker.
Observations today (practice nurse)HR 78 /min regular, BP 124/78 mmHg, RR 14 /min, SpO2 99% on room air, T 36.7 degrees C, BMI 24

Your tasks are to:

  1. Take a focused history of the episodes and their effect on his life.
  2. Request any further investigations you think are needed. The examiner will provide results or tell you they are not indicated.
  3. State your most likely diagnosis and the differential diagnoses to the examiner.
  4. Outline your initial management plan and explain it to Deng.
  • You do NOT need to examine the patient.
  • You do NOT need to summarise the history to the examiner.
  • State drug, dose and route where relevant.

This is a 10-minute station, with 2 minutes of reading time.

Ask the examiner

Say what you want out loud, then open it below. Each result stays hidden until you reveal it.

Investigations

Ask for a category the way you would in the station: β€œCan I have the obs and a set of bloods?”

Generated by AI for practice; check doses and pathways against eTG / AMH before relying on them.