Internal Medicine

Congratulations on arriving at this stage in your medical career! This book is to help you condense the somewhat overwhelming constellation of Internal Medicine 'facts' into a usable data base. It is not comprehensive and is obviously lopsided (for example, the Hematology and Oncology sections are expanded to take advan- tage of previously prepared material, and because students are often confused/in- timidatd by the 'C' word). It is not written by a basic scientist in the lab or a molecular biologist who rounds on the wards in May; rather the descriptors are of patients well-known from years in the trenches. The covered subjects in this book are favorite topics of the 'Professors of Medicine' around the country who write questions for standardized exams. Some topics in medicine come and go, some are cyclic, and some are classic. The latter should be your focus as you prepare for your next hurdle. Many thanks to you, the student, for asking stimulating questions, for being so eager to learn, for working so hard, for making medicine fun for us, for carrying on the tradition! Thanks to Karl Hoskison, M. D. for contributing questions. Thanks to those who helped in the preparation of the manuscript: Barbara McCoy; Lorraine Marietta; my daugher, Debbie Baker; and Mariann Duca. Enjoy, and may you never stop learning.