NBME 23 Answers : Block 2 : #39 = A 39-year-old woman with obesity and recently ...

welcome redditors!

to snoo-finity ... and beyond!

NBME 23 Answers

nbme23/Block 2/Question#39

A 39-year-old woman with obesity and recently ...

Gemfibrozil

+4 upvote downvote
submitted by monkd(4),

Am I crazy or did Uworld not have a question that stated Statins are the most effective drug regardless of baseline lipids. This logic threw my off.

adisdiadochokinetic You are not crazy. I got this question wrong for the same reason but here's why I think NBME was going with fibrates. You can use the Friedewald equation to calculate LDL cholesterol from the values they give. This equation is LDL= Total Cholesterol-HDL Cholesterol-(Triglycerides/5). The Triglycerides/5 term is an estimate for VLDL. If you calculate it in this case you get an LDL of 120 which is firmly normal and thus the patient would ostensibly not benefit from statin therapy. +5

+1 upvote downvote
submitted by hayayah(416),

Femfibrozil is a fibrate, used for lowering TG levels.

mousie I also chose Gemfibrozil too because its the best TG lowering drug listed but I can see where there might be some red flags for this drug in the way they asked the question... 40 year old obese woman with some upper abdominal pain ..... HELLO GALL STONES which is a common adverse outcome of Fibrates. +2

uslme123 Well I didn't wanna give a fat, forty, female, that smokes a fibrate. So a statin, for me, was the best next option. +2

whoissaad Used same reasoning to choose statins. Fibrates are the main drug of choice for hypertriglyceridemia but given her symptoms, statins made more sense. Why do they do this to us... +

roaaaj what a tricky question! there are multiple factors should be taken in consideration.. she has triglyceridemia which put her in risk of pancreatitis, and most importantly atherosclerotic disease, and all of that would outweigh the risk of giving her gallstone. +

-10 upvote downvote
submitted by thomasalterman(75),

Niacin can cause hyperglycemia, flushing, and gout. NSAID's can treat gout. Aspirin at high concentrations also inhibits renal reabsorption, but it inhibits secretion at low levels. I went with aspirin over acetaminophen b/c although acetaminophen is an analgesic it lacks anti-inflammatory activity.

redvelvet this is not that question :) +