USMLE Exam Questions

A 32-year-old construction worker arrives in the emergency department after an accident on the job. The tendon of the biceps brachii at the elbow has been severed by a laceration t...

A genotypic male (XY) is born with feminized external genitalia. The testes are retained within the abdominal cavity, and the internal reproductive tracts exhibit the normal male p...

A 24-year-old AIDS patient develops chronic abdominal pain, low-grade fever, diarrhea, and malabsorption. Oocysts are demonstrated in the stool. Which of the following organisms is...

A 28-year-old man decides to donate a kidney to his brother, who is in chronic renal failure, after HLA typing suggests that he would be a suitable donor. He is admitted to the hos...

Bilateral ovarian masses are identified on pelvic examination of a 40-year-old woman. Ultrasound examination reveals multiloculated cystic masses involving both ovaries. The patien...

In a normal individual, a tube with a transducer at its tip is swallowed and passed an unknown distance down the esophagus. Between swallows it records a pressure of 25 mm Hg. A sm...

A 54-year-old man with extensive, severe atherosclerosis sustains a thrombotic occlusion of the celiac trunk. The organs that receive their blood supply from this artery continue t...

A 54-year-old man presents to the emergency department with intense pain in his right eye. Examination reveals a red ring surrounding his iris and elevated intraocular pressure in...

While lying supine in bed eating, a child aspirates a peanut. Which of the following bronchopulmonary segments would this foreign object most likely enter?

A 47-year-old man with a history of sickle cell disease has had numerous hospitalizations requiring the placement of IV lines. The patient has poor peripheral venous access, and a...

A 2-month-old child is evaluated for failure to thrive. During the examination, the child has a seizure. Stat serum chemistries demonstrate severe hypoglycemia, hyperlipidemia, lac...

The parents of a 7-year-old boy divorce. The boy lives with the mother and sees his father every- other weekend. During these visits, the boy is sullen and angry with the father, b...

A letter carrier is severely bitten by a pit bull guarding a junkyard. The wound is cleansed, and the letter carrier receives a booster injection of tetanus toxoid and an injection...

A 25-year-old man presents to a rheumatologist with complaints of joint pain involving the large joints of the legs. On questioning, the patient indicates that exacerbations in the...

A couple has a daughter who is ataxic and has a seizure disorder. She also has a strange affect characterized by excessive laughter at inappropriate times. Cytogenetic analysis dem...

A 65-year-old man develops oliguria and peripheral edema over a period of weeks. Urinalysis reveals hematuria and proteinuria; examination of the urinary sediment reveals red cell...

A 75-year-old woman presents to the physician with a chief complaint of vaginal spotting. She has been postmenopausal for 25 years and does not take hormones. An ultrasound shows a...

A neonate does not pass meconium until 48 hours after his birth. Two weeks later his mother reports that he has not been passing stool regularly. Anorectal manometry reveals increa...

A 2-year-old child with uncomplicated coarctation of the aorta appears to be in good health. Growth and development are normal. The constriction is located just distal to the subcl...

A 75-year-old man presents to his physician with complaints of nocturia, urinary urgency, and a feeling that he could not completely empty his bladder. A digital rectal exam reveal...

An adult patient presents with persistent headaches. A CT scan of the head demonstrates a 2-cm spherical mass at the junction of the white and gray matter of the lateral aspect of...

A 37-year-old woman presents to the emergency department with a fever. Chest x-ray film shows multiple patchy infiltrates in both lungs. Echocardiography and blood cultures suggest...

A 5-year-old child, who has not had routine pediatric care, develops a febrile disease with cough and a blotchy rash and is brought to the emergency department. On physical examina...

A 57-year-old man is brought to the emergency room for a suspected myocardial infarction. An electrocardiogram indicates the appearance of a wide-complex ventricular tachycardia wi...

While performing a subtotal thyroidectomy, a surgeon inadvertently sections the recurrent laryngeal nerve. Which of the following muscles would retain its innervation subsequent to...

A newborn infant who was apparently healthy at birth develops aspiration pneumonia in the first 2 days of life. All attempts to feed the infant cause it to cough and choke. Which o...

A 46-year-old man sustains a spider bite on his upper eyelid, and an infection develops. The physician is very concerned about spread of the infection to the dural venous sinuses o...

A 15-year-old high school student and several of her friends ate lunch at a local Chinese restaurant. They all were served the daily luncheon special, which consisted of sweet and...

A 24-year-old woman with a history of allergic rhinitis is involved in an automobile accident and sustains a splenic laceration. She undergoes abdominal surgery and is then transfu...

A couple presents to a clinic for workup of infertility after 5 years of unprotected intercourse. The wife denies any medical problems and notes regular menstrual cycles. The husba...

A patient presents with cervical lymphadenopathy. Biopsy demonstrates a nodular lymphoma with follicle formation. This lesion would most likely be associated with which of the foll...

A 25-year-old woman presents with pain and tenosynovitis of the wrists and ankles, and arthralgias of other joints. She notes two prior episodes similar to the present one. She jus...

A 5-year-old girl is thoroughly evaluated because of growth failure. The child has been complaining of headaches, which are exacerbated when she tries to read. Funduscopic examinat...

A new antifungal medication is being tested in Phase I clinical trials. Examination of the pharmacokinetic properties of the drug reveals that the half-life of the drug is 6 hours....

A patient presents to a physician with jaundice. Physical examination reveals a nodular, enlarged liver. CT of the abdomen shows a cirrhotic liver with a large mass. CT-guided biop...

A man brings his 45-year-old wife to the emergency department. He states she has been ill for 3 days and has been running a temperature of 99.8 to 100.5 F. Today she is having diff...

A patient consults a physician because of a small lesion on the lips that, on biopsy, proves to be a mucosal neuroma. The patient's mother had medullary carcinoma of the thyroid. I...

A 2-year-old boy has a CT scan of the head performed after a pediatrician notices a disproportionate growth in his head circumference compared with the rest of the body. The scan d...

A premature infant develops progressive difficulty breathing over the first few days of life. Deficient surfactant synthesis by which of the following cell types may be contributin...

A 67-year-old woman who has been in very good health is brought to her physician's office by her husband. He states that over the course of the past 5 years she has had difficulty...

A 57-year-old woman with a history of hypertension and arthritis is referred to a rheumatologist for evaluation. A complete blood count (CBC) is normal, and a mini-chem panel shows...

A 55-year-old hypertensive man develops sudden onset of excruciating pain beginning in the anterior chest, and then radiating to the back. Over the next 2 hours, the pain moves dow...

A 22-year-old woman presents to her physician with amenorrhea, weight loss, anxiety, tremor, heat intolerance, and palpitations. Laboratory examination is consistent with hyperthyr...

A 54-year-old African-American woman undergoes a routine insurance physical examination. Chest x-ray film reveals bilateral hilar masses. Biopsy of the masses shows granulomata, bu...

A 67-year-old man is evaluated for persistent shooting pains, lower limb ataxia, and bladder dysfunction. Physical examination demonstrates small irregular pupils that constrict wi...

An oncologist tells his patient that her laboratory results support a diagnosis of advanced malignant melanoma with multiple metastases to the liver and brain. He also advises her...

A 44-year-old businessman presents to a physician because of a markedly inflamed and painful right great toe. He states that he just returned from a convention, and noticed increas...

A Guatemalan child with a history of meconium ileus is brought to a clinic because of a chronic cough. The mother notes a history of respiratory tract infections and bulky, foul-sm...

During a fight, a 32-year-old man is hit on the back of the neck with a chair. A CT scan reveals a bony fragment that penetrated the lateral portion of the dorsal columns. Which of...

A 61-year-old man presents with a chief complaint of difficulty swallowing. To evaluate his dysphagia, the physician orders a barium swallow with fluoroscopy, as well as an esophag...