Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

Drug levels should be monitored in the treatment of epilepsy.

Several antiepileptics, phenytoin above all, have a narrow therapeutic range, wide variation between patients and, for phenytoin, saturation (zero-order) kinetics, so a small dose change can cause toxicity. Their effect is also hard to judge clinically, since the aim is the absence of seizures, so plasma levels are measured to guide the dose.

In hypertension and diabetes the effect is measured directly as blood pressure and blood glucose, so drug levels are not needed. In asthma, levels matter only for theophylline, which is now little used, not for the inhalers that make up most treatment.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

Double decomposition is a chemical incompatibility.

In double decomposition two salts exchange ions and form a new, often insoluble compound that precipitates. A chemical reaction between ingredients changes the product, so it is a chemical incompatibility, like oxidation, hydrolysis or a change of colour.

Physical incompatibility involves no reaction: immiscible liquids, insoluble drugs, or mixtures that liquefy. Therapeutic incompatibility is a problem with the prescribing, such as antagonistic drugs or an overdose. 'Biological' is not one of the classes of incompatibility.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The father of cytopathology is Dr. George Papanicolaou.

Papanicolaou, a Greek-born physician working in the United States, showed that cancer of the cervix could be detected from cells shed into vaginal smears. His Pap smear and the Papanicolaou stain founded diagnostic cytology as a discipline.

Hans Christian Gram devised the Gram stain for bacteria. Charles Darwin proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection. Robert Brown described the cell nucleus in 1831, an early contribution to cell biology but not to cytopathology.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

Low albumin in liver function tests points to severe liver damage.

Albumin is made only by the liver. Because it has a half-life of about three weeks, a fall in serum albumin shows that the liver's synthetic function has been impaired for some time, as in cirrhosis or chronic liver disease. It is therefore a marker of severe or chronic damage rather than a mild, recent injury.

Kidney disease can lower albumin through urinary loss, but that is not what a liver function test is measuring. A viral infection need not lower albumin. Dehydration concentrates the blood and raises the albumin level.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The agent used for decalcification is nitric acid.

Bone and calcified tissue are too hard to section until the calcium salts are removed. Dilute nitric acid, typically 5-10%, is a rapid decalcifying agent; formic acid and EDTA are slower, gentler alternatives.

Alcohol and acetone are dehydrating agents used during tissue processing, and they do not dissolve calcium. Formalin is a fixative; it preserves the tissue before decalcification but does not remove calcium.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

The function of platelets is clot formation to stop bleeding.

Platelets (thrombocytes) are fragments of megakaryocytes. When a vessel is injured they adhere to the exposed collagen, release chemicals that attract more platelets, aggregate into a plug, and provide the surface on which the clotting factors form fibrin. This process is haemostasis.

Immunity and protection against infection are the work of white blood cells. Platelets release growth factors that help repair, but healing is carried out by many cells and is not their primary function.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

The enzyme used to evaluate pancreatic function is amylase.

Serum amylase rises within hours of the onset of acute pancreatitis, and a level above three times the upper limit of normal supports the diagnosis. Serum lipase is the other pancreatic enzyme used, and is more specific.

Alkaline phosphatase is a marker of liver (biliary) and bone disease. Aspartate transaminase reflects damage to the liver, heart or muscle. Lactate dehydrogenase is present in almost every tissue and rises in haemolysis, tissue damage and many tumours, so none of them points to the pancreas.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

The correct matching is 1-a, 2-d, 3-b, 4-c.

• Dark urine: concentrated urine from excessive sweating or dehydration.
• Light coloured urine: dilute urine from a high fluid intake, or from kidneys that cannot concentrate urine.
• Bright yellow: vitamin B supplements, whose riboflavin is excreted with a fluorescent yellow colour.
• Red: blood in the urine (haematuria).

The first code wrongly pairs pale urine with vitamin B and bright yellow with blood. The others fail on dark urine, which reflects concentration, not vitamins or blood.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The answer is Both Salah's Klima and Jamshidi's marrow aspiration needle.

Bone marrow aspiration needs a strong needle with a stylet and an adjustable guard that stops it going too deep. The Salah and Klima needles are the classic sternal and iliac aspiration needles of this kind, and the Jamshidi needle, with its tapered tip, is widely used today for both aspiration and trephine biopsy.

Since both kinds are used, options naming only one are incomplete. A vacuum syringe can be attached to draw the marrow, but it is not a needle that can penetrate bone.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

NPPA stands for The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority.

The NPPA was set up in 1997 under the Department of Pharmaceuticals (Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers). It fixes and revises the ceiling prices of scheduled drugs, enforces the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, monitors the prices of other medicines and recovers overcharged amounts from companies.

The other expansions, with 'Pharmacy', 'Policy' or 'Pharma ... of drug', are near-misses of the official name.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

The Central Drugs Laboratory is at Calcutta (Kolkata).

The Central Drugs Laboratory was set up under the Drugs Act of 1940, now the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, as the national statutory laboratory for testing the quality of drugs. It is the final authority when a drug sample's test result is disputed, and it remains in Kolkata.

Delhi, Mumbai and Bhopal are distractors: the laboratory the question asks about was founded in Calcutta.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

Rauwolfia is used as an antihypertensive.

The root of Rauwolfia serpentina (sarpagandha) contains the alkaloid reserpine. Reserpine depletes noradrenaline from sympathetic nerve endings, which lowers blood pressure, and it was once also used as a tranquilliser.

It is not an analgesic, an expectorant or a laxative. Those uses belong to other drugs: opium alkaloids for pain, ipecacuanha or ammonium chloride for expectoration, and senna for constipation.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

The laxative drug is senna.

Senna leaves and pods (Cassia angustifolia and C. acutifolia) contain anthraquinone glycosides, the sennosides. Bacteria in the colon release the active aglycones, which stimulate the bowel wall, so senna is a stimulant purgative usually taken at night to act by morning.

Clove and fennel are carminatives, used to relieve flatulence, and clove oil is also a dental analgesic. Ashoka (Saraca asoca) bark is a traditional uterine tonic used for menstrual disorders. None of the three is a laxative.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

Mulethi is liquorice, Glycyrrihiza glabra (usually spelt Glycyrrhiza glabra).

The dried roots and stolons are used. They contain the sweet saponin glycoside glycyrrhizin, and the drug is used as a demulcent and expectorant, as a flavouring, and in the treatment of peptic ulcer.

The other names belong to different plants: Aloe barbadensis is aloe (ghritkumari), Withania somnifera is ashwagandha, and Ocimum sanctum is tulsi (holy basil).

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

Eugenia caryophyllus is the botanical name of clove.

Clove is the dried flower bud of the tree now usually called Syzygium aromaticum (family Myrtaceae). Its volatile oil is rich in eugenol, used as a dental analgesic and antiseptic.

Cardamom is Elettaria cardamomum, nutmeg is Myristica fragrans, and cinnamon is Cinnamomum zeylanicum (C. verum), so none of them carries the name Eugenia.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : C

Macrolide antibiotics contain a lactone ring.

The name 'macrolide' means a large (macro) cyclic lactone. Erythromycin, clarithromycin and azithromycin have a 14- to 16-membered macrocyclic lactone ring with one or more sugars attached. They inhibit bacterial protein synthesis at the 50S ribosome.

A lactam ring is the feature of the beta-lactams (penicillins and cephalosporins). A phenanthrene nucleus is found in steroids and in morphine. A naphthalene nucleus is not part of the macrolide structure; the tetracyclines, for example, are built on a four-ring naphthacene system.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : B

Clark's process is used to remove temporary hardness of water by adding slaked lime.

Temporary hardness is caused by calcium and magnesium bicarbonates. A calculated quantity of slaked lime converts the soluble bicarbonate into insoluble calcium carbonate, which settles out:

Ca(HCO₃)₂ + Ca(OH)₂ → 2CaCO₃ + 2H₂O

Permanent hardness, caused by sulphates and chlorides, is not removed by lime alone; it needs washing soda or ion exchange. Lime is not used here as a disinfectant, and the process makes water less acidic, not more.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

The isotope is I-131 (iodine-131).

The thyroid takes up iodine to make its hormones, so radioactive iodine concentrates there. Small doses are used to measure thyroid uptake in thyroid disorders, and larger doses destroy thyroid tissue in hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer, which makes I-131 both diagnostic and therapeutic.

The others are used elsewhere: chromium-51 labels red cells to measure their survival and volume, iron-59 traces iron metabolism, and cobalt-57 labels vitamin B12 in the Schilling test for its absorption.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

ORS belongs to the group of electrolytes and carbohydrates.

The WHO low-osmolarity formula contains sodium chloride, potassium chloride and trisodium citrate (electrolytes) with anhydrous glucose (a carbohydrate). The glucose matters: sodium and glucose are absorbed together across the intestinal wall, and water follows, which is why ORS rehydrates even during diarrhoea.

ORS contains no proteins or enzymes, no vitamins, and no lipids or amino acids, so the other groupings do not describe it.

Your Answer : (Not Answered)

Correct Answer : A

Penicillin V is phenoxymethylpenicillin.

The phenoxymethyl side chain makes it stable in gastric acid, which is why penicillin V is the penicillin given by mouth.

The other three are forms of penicillin G (benzylpenicillin), which acid destroys and which is therefore injected. Benzylpenicillin sodium is the soluble salt for intravenous or intramuscular use. Benzathine penicillin and procaine penicillin are poorly soluble depot salts given intramuscularly so that penicillin G is released slowly over days (benzathine) or about a day (procaine).