Triviosis archive
Every past daily medical quiz, with each answer explained. Newest first.
19 past puzzles, up to Thursday 5 November 2026. Today’s and future puzzles are never shown here.
November 2026
#19 · Thursday 5 November 2026 Medium
Theme: After the wave
Today is World Tsunami Awareness Day. In START mass-casualty triage, anyone who can walk is tagged?
Answer: Green (minor)
START stands for Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment. Walking wounded go green and are reassessed later.
In adult START triage, a breathing patient is tagged red (immediate) if their respiratory rate is over?
Answer: 30 a minute
Over 30, a capillary refill over 2 seconds (or no radial pulse), or not obeying commands all mean red.
A limb trapped under rubble for hours is finally freed. The most immediate threat to life is?
Answer: Hyperkalaemia and cardiac arrest
Potassium and myoglobin flood out of crushed muscle on release. Rescuers start IV fluids before freeing the limb when they can.
Bywaters and Beall described crush syndrome and its kidney failure in 1941, in people pulled from?
Answer: Bombed buildings in the London Blitz
Their BMJ paper made the link between crushed muscle and acute kidney injury.
Most of the roughly 230,000 deaths in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami were caused by?
Answer: Drowning
The wave hit with little warning. Many victims were women and children, who were less likely to be able to swim or outrun it.
‘Tsunami lung’ is?
Answer: Aspiration pneumonia from inhaling dirty seawater
The water carries mud, sewage and soil bugs, so infections can be mixed and unusual.
After floods, which infection spread through water contaminated with rat urine rises sharply?
Answer: Leptospirosis
Think fever, muscle aches (especially calves) and red eyes after wading through floodwater. Severe cases cause jaundice and kidney failure (Weil’s disease).
The 2004 tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off which island?
Answer: Sumatra
The quake was off northern Sumatra in Indonesia. Waves reached as far as East Africa.
Weeks after big floods in the tropics, standing water often drives a surge in which mosquito-borne virus?
Answer: Dengue
Aedes mosquitoes breed in water left in tyres, buckets and rubble. Clearing containers matters as much as clean water.
A survivor has a dirty wound and can’t remember their tetanus jabs. The safest plan is?
Answer: Tetanus vaccine plus tetanus immunoglobulin
A tetanus-prone wound with an unknown history gets both. Tetanus cases spiked in Aceh after 2004.
#18 · Wednesday 4 November 2026 Medium
Theme: Kidneys
What is the functional unit of the kidney?
Answer: The nephron
About a million per kidney.
eGFR estimates?
Answer: How well the kidneys filter
eGFR estimates how much blood the kidneys filter each minute, worked out from blood creatinine, age and sex.
What is the most common type of kidney stone?
Answer: Calcium oxalate
About three-quarters of kidney stones are calcium-based, mostly calcium oxalate. Drinking plenty of water is the best prevention.
Which hormone from the kidneys drives red cell production?
Answer: Erythropoietin
Erythropoietin (EPO) is made by the kidneys, which is why kidney failure so often causes anaemia.
Adult polycystic kidney disease is inherited how?
Answer: Autosomal dominant
Adult polycystic kidney disease is autosomal dominant: each child of an affected parent has a 50% chance of inheriting it.
Heavy protein in the urine, swelling and low albumin suggest?
Answer: Nephrotic syndrome
Nephrotic syndrome is leaky kidney filters: heavy protein loss in the urine, low albumin and puffy swelling.
The kidneys sit in which space?
Answer: The retroperitoneum
The kidneys sit behind the abdominal lining, in the retroperitoneum, tucked against the back muscles.
Extreme exercise, like an ultramarathon, can flood the kidneys with myoglobin from damaged muscle. This is?
Answer: Rhabdomyolysis
Myoglobin is toxic to kidney tubules, the CK soars and urine can turn cola-coloured. A modest CK rise is normal after any marathon, such as the New York City Marathon on 1 November.
Which electrolyte is the big danger in kidney failure?
Answer: Potassium
High potassium can stop the heart.
Cola-coloured urine a few weeks after strep throat suggests?
Answer: Post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis
Post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis is an immune reaction one to three weeks after a strep throat or skin infection, inflaming the kidney filters.
#17 · Tuesday 3 November 2026 Easy
Theme: Horses, not zebras (Melbourne Cup day)
‘When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras’ was coined by?
Answer: Theodore Woodward
Woodward taught it to students at the University of Maryland in the late 1940s: common things are common. Rare diagnoses have been ‘zebras’ ever since.
‘Cauda equina’, the bundle of nerve roots at the bottom of the spinal canal, literally means?
Answer: Horse’s tail
Below the end of the spinal cord the nerve roots fan out like a horse’s tail.
Numbness in the ‘saddle’ area plus new bladder trouble is a red flag for?
Answer: Cauda equina syndrome
Compression of those nerve roots, often by a large disc prolapse, is a surgical emergency.
A ‘charley horse’ is?
Answer: A sudden muscle cramp
Usually a painful calf cramp. The origin of the name is uncertain, but it’s been in American slang since the 1880s.
The hippocampus, the brain’s memory hub, is named after its resemblance to a?
Answer: Seahorse
From the Greek hippos (horse) and kampos (sea monster). Anatomist Julius Caesar Arantius named it in 1587.
A horseshoe kidney is when?
Answer: The two kidneys are joined at their lower poles
It’s the commonest kidney fusion, in about 1 in 500 people, and is usually found by chance on a scan.
Many antivenoms, and the first diphtheria antitoxin, were made using which animal?
Answer: Horses
Horses are given small, safe doses of venom or toxin and make antibodies, which are purified from their plasma. Most Australian snake antivenoms are still made this way.
A classic menopause hormone therapy, Premarin, takes its name from?
Answer: Pregnant mares’ urine
PREgnant MARes’ urINe is the source of its conjugated oestrogens. Women’s health owes the horse more than most people realise.
Which animal is the symbol of Ehlers-Danlos syndromes and many rare-disease groups?
Answer: Zebra
Patients adopted it to say: sometimes the hoofbeats really are a zebra. Rare diseases are rare one by one, but together affect millions.
Phar Lap, winner of the 1930 Melbourne Cup, is famous for having a heart that weighed about?
Answer: 6.2 kg
About twice the 3.2 kg of an average horse’s heart. It’s on display at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.
#16 · Monday 2 November 2026 Easy
Theme: Pathology Week: the lab behind the diagnosis
In the standard H&E stain, haematoxylin colours cell nuclei?
Answer: Blue-purple
Haematoxylin (from the logwood tree) turns nuclei blue-purple; eosin turns cytoplasm pink. It’s been the workhorse of histology for well over a century.
Which white cells are normally the most numerous in adult blood?
Answer: Neutrophils
Neutrophils make up roughly 40–75% of white cells and are first on the scene in bacterial infection.
Tissue frozen and cut during an operation, so the pathologist can report within minutes, is a?
Answer: Frozen section
A frozen section lets the surgeon know mid-operation whether a margin is clear or a lump is cancer. The full report on fixed tissue follows days later.
Gram-negative bacteria stain which colour on a Gram stain?
Answer: Pink-red
Gram-positive bacteria hold the crystal violet and look purple; Gram-negatives lose it and pick up the pink counterstain. Danish scientist Hans Christian Gram invented the method in 1884.
HbA1c reflects average blood glucose over roughly the past?
Answer: 2–3 months
Glucose sticks to haemoglobin for the life of the red cell, about 120 days, so HbA1c shows the longer-term picture.
Which blood test is the key marker of heart muscle damage?
Answer: Troponin
Troponins are proteins of heart muscle. A rise and fall in troponin is central to diagnosing a heart attack.
‘Autopsy’ literally means?
Answer: Seeing for yourself
From the Greek autos (self) and opsis (sight). ‘Necropsy’ means seeing the dead.
Rudolf Virchow, father of modern pathology, popularised the idea that every cell comes from?
Answer: Another cell
‘Omnis cellula e cellula’ (1855). It buried the idea that life springs from non-living matter and grounded disease in cells.
Target cells, sickle cells and schistocytes are all abnormal shapes of which cells on a blood film?
Answer: Red blood cells
Red cell shape tells a story: sickle cells in sickle cell disease, target cells in thalassaemia and liver disease, fragments (schistocytes) when cells are sliced up in small vessels.
The Pap smear is named after Georgios Papanicolaou. Who was his main test subject for 21 years?
Answer: His wife, Andromachi (Mary)
Andromachi Papanikolaou let him take a sample from her cervix almost every day for 21 years, which helped him map normal cell changes. Few medical ‘thank yous’ have been more overdue.
#15 · Sunday 1 November 2026 Genius
Theme: Medical Latin and Greek
The prefix ‘nephr-’ refers to which organ?
Answer: Kidney
‘Nephr-’ is Greek for kidney: think nephrology, nephritis and nephrectomy.
The suffix ‘-ectomy’ means?
Answer: Surgical removal
-otomy cuts in, -itis inflames, -oscopy looks.
‘Hepat-’ refers to the?
Answer: Liver
‘Hepat-’ is Greek for liver: hepatitis, hepatology, hepatomegaly.
‘QID’ on a prescription means?
Answer: Four times a day
Quater in die.
The prefix ‘dys-’ means?
Answer: Difficult or abnormal
As in dyspnoea, dysphagia, dysuria.
‘-aemia’ at the end of a word refers to?
Answer: Blood
As in anaemia and septicaemia.
The ‘cholecyst’ is the?
Answer: Gallbladder
Chole: bile. Kystis: bladder.
‘Pyrexia’ means?
Answer: Fever
Pyrexia (from the Greek for fire) is the medical word for fever, usually a temperature of 38°C or more.
Testing for ‘dysdiadochokinesia’ checks the ability to?
Answer: Do rapid alternating movements
A cerebellar sign. Also excellent Scrabble.
‘Stat’ comes from the Latin statim, meaning?
Answer: Immediately
‘Stat’ is short for statim, Latin for immediately. In practice it means drop everything.
October 2026
#14 · Saturday 31 October 2026 Hard
Theme: Spooky medicine
In 1985 a chemist suggested which rare disease might explain vampire legends?
Answer: Porphyria
Congenital erythropoietic porphyria, said David Dolphin. Historians and doctors were not convinced.
‘Werewolf syndrome’ is a nickname for?
Answer: Hypertrichosis
Excess hair growth all over. Clinical lycanthropy is the belief you're turning into an animal.
A ‘zombie’ state of staring, stiff stillness and no response can be?
Answer: Catatonia
It often responds well to treatment.
Rigor mortis happens because muscles run out of?
Answer: ATP
Without ATP, myosin can't let go of actin.
Goosebumps are caused by tiny muscles called?
Answer: Arrector pili
Left over from furrier ancestors puffing up to look scary.
Botulinum toxin works by blocking the release of?
Answer: Acetylcholine
This causes a descending flaccid paralysis. Tiny doses are used in medicine.
Tetrodotoxin is found in which animal?
Answer: Pufferfish
It blocks sodium channels. One ethnobotanist claimed it was in Haitian ‘zombie powder’, a disputed idea.
Cyanide is classically said to smell of?
Answer: Bitter almonds
Not everyone can smell it. Rotten eggs is hydrogen sulphide.
Methanol poisoning can permanently cause?
Answer: Blindness
Its breakdown product, formic acid, damages the optic nerve.
The adult skull is made of how many bones, not counting the ear ossicles?
Answer: 22
Eight cranial and fourteen facial.
#13 · Friday 30 October 2026 Hard
Theme: Gut feelings
Coeliac disease is triggered by?
Answer: Gluten
In coeliac disease, gluten (in wheat, barley and rye) triggers an immune attack on the lining of the small intestine.
Tenderness at McBurney’s point suggests?
Answer: Appendicitis
Two-thirds of the way from the navel to the right hip bone.
Besides hepatitis A, which hepatitis virus spreads mainly through contaminated food and water?
Answer: Hepatitis E
Hepatitis E, like hepatitis A, spreads mainly through contaminated food and water, and can be severe in pregnancy.
‘Coffee ground’ vomit suggests?
Answer: Upper GI bleeding
Blood altered by stomach acid.
Barrett’s oesophagus increases the risk of?
Answer: Oesophageal adenocarcinoma
In Barrett’s oesophagus, long-term reflux changes the lining of the oesophagus, raising the risk of adenocarcinoma.
Crohn’s disease can affect?
Answer: Anywhere from mouth to anus
Ulcerative colitis sticks to the colon.
A raised lipase is the key test for?
Answer: Pancreatitis
Lipase is an enzyme released from an inflamed pancreas. A level over three times normal supports the diagnosis.
Gilbert’s syndrome causes a mildly raised?
Answer: Unconjugated bilirubin
Harmless. Often noticed when fasting or unwell.
The low FODMAP diet is mainly used for?
Answer: Irritable bowel syndrome
Developed at Monash University.
Murphy’s sign is used to assess the?
Answer: Gallbladder
Pain stops the breath in when pressing under the right ribs.
#12 · Thursday 29 October 2026 Medium
Theme: Time is brain
Most strokes are caused by?
Answer: A blocked artery (ischaemic)
Roughly 8 in 10 are ischaemic.
The World Stroke Organization says your lifetime risk of stroke is about?
Answer: 1 in 4
Today is World Stroke Day, held every 29 October since 2006.
In an untreated large ischaemic stroke, about how many brain cells are lost each minute?
Answer: About 1.9 million
Jeffrey Saver's 2006 estimate. Hence ‘time is brain’.
A stroke in the left middle cerebral artery usually weakens the?
Answer: Right face and arm
And often affects language too.
A TIA is?
Answer: Stroke symptoms that fully go away, usually within an hour
A warning shot. Same-day assessment matters.
Damage to Wernicke's area causes trouble with?
Answer: Understanding speech
Speech flows but makes little sense.
Bleeding into the brain tissue is most strongly linked to?
Answer: High blood pressure
Long-term high blood pressure weakens small arteries deep in the brain until one bursts. It’s the biggest risk factor for brain bleeds.
Alteplase, the clot-busting drug, is a?
Answer: Tissue plasminogen activator
It must be given within hours of onset, in carefully chosen patients.
A stroke in the back of the brain (posterior circulation) classically causes?
Answer: Vertigo, double vision and unsteadiness
Easily mistaken for an inner ear problem.
Psoriasis plaques classically appear on the?
Answer: Elbows and knees (extensor surfaces)
Also World Psoriasis Day. Severe psoriasis is linked with higher heart and stroke risk.
#11 · Wednesday 28 October 2026 Medium
Theme: Hormones
Which gland is called the ‘master gland’?
Answer: Pituitary
The pituitary, a pea-sized gland under the brain, sends hormones that boss around the thyroid, adrenals, ovaries and testes.
Graves’ disease causes?
Answer: An overactive thyroid
Often with bulging eyes.
HbA1c reflects average blood glucose over roughly?
Answer: 3 months
About the life of a red cell.
Hot flushes around menopause are mainly driven by falling levels of?
Answer: Oestrogen
Most women get them at some point. Hormone therapy and non-hormonal options both help.
Too much growth hormone in adults causes?
Answer: Acromegaly
In children, before growth plates close, it causes gigantism.
In diabetes, hypoglycaemia is usually treated when blood glucose drops below?
Answer: 4 mmol/L (about 70 mg/dL)
‘Four is the floor.’
Diabetes insipidus is a problem with which hormone?
Answer: ADH (vasopressin)
Lots of dilute urine. Nothing to do with sugar.
Addison’s disease is failure of the?
Answer: Adrenal cortex
In Addison’s disease the adrenal cortex fails, so the body runs short of cortisol and aldosterone.
Iodine deficiency can cause a swollen thyroid called a?
Answer: Goitre
Without enough iodine the thyroid can’t make its hormones, so it enlarges trying to keep up. Iodised salt has made goitre far rarer.
Which hormone peaks around waking and follows a daily rhythm?
Answer: Cortisol
Melatonin does the opposite, rising at night.
#10 · Tuesday 27 October 2026 Easy
Theme: Back to everyday life
What do occupational therapists mainly help people do?
Answer: Get back to everyday activities
‘Occupation’ means anything that fills your day. World OT Day has been held on 27 October since 2010.
In healthcare, what does ADL stand for?
Answer: Activities of daily living
ADLs are the basic self-care tasks: washing, dressing, eating, toileting and moving around.
Which of these is a basic ADL?
Answer: Showering
Shopping, money and phones are ‘instrumental’ ADLs.
Carpal tunnel syndrome squashes which nerve?
Answer: The median nerve
Night-time tingling in the thumb, index and middle fingers is classic.
A grabber for picking things up without bending is usually called a?
Answer: Reacher
A reacher (or grabber) lets you pick things up without bending: an occupational therapist favourite after hip surgery.
A walking frame with wheels, brakes and a seat is a?
Answer: Rollator
The frame without wheels is the Zimmer.
After a right-sided stroke, ignoring everything on the left is called?
Answer: Neglect
OTs train people to scan towards the ignored side.
Trouble carrying out planned movements, like using a toothbrush, despite normal strength is?
Answer: Apraxia
In apraxia the muscles work fine, but the brain can’t plan the movement. It often follows a stroke.
Grip strength is measured with a?
Answer: Dynamometer
A goniometer measures joint angles. Weak grip also tracks frailty.
A raised toilet seat mainly helps people who struggle with?
Answer: Getting up from low seats
Often after a hip replacement.
#9 · Monday 26 October 2026 Easy
Theme: Nobel nerves
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to pioneers of which technique?
Answer: Optogenetics
Announced on 5 October. Switching nerve cells on and off with light.
The light-sensitive protein behind optogenetics was first found in?
Answer: A single-celled green alga
Channelrhodopsin, from Chlamydomonas. Pond life, Nobel-adjacent.
Channelrhodopsin opens when it is hit by which colour of light?
Answer: Blue
Shine blue light, and the nerve cell fires.
What is the gap between two nerve cells called?
Answer: Synapse
Nerve cells don’t quite touch: chemical messengers called neurotransmitters cross the tiny gap, the synapse.
Which fatty coating speeds up nerve signals?
Answer: Myelin
It's what gets damaged in multiple sclerosis.
The light-detecting rods and cones sit in which part of the eye?
Answer: The retina
Their pigment, rhodopsin, is a distant cousin of the Nobel protein.
Movement of the left hand is controlled mainly by?
Answer: The right side of the brain
The wiring crosses over.
An EEG records?
Answer: Electrical activity of the brain
An EEG uses scalp electrodes to record the brain’s electrical activity, and is key for diagnosing epilepsy.
Nerve cells pass a signal to the next cell using?
Answer: Neurotransmitters
Chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin.
Today, optogenetics is mainly?
Answer: A research tool
Early human trials exist, including one where a man with retinitis pigmentosa regained partial sight. Still experimental.
#8 · Sunday 25 October 2026 Genius
Theme: Haematology
Which inherited condition causes iron overload and is common in people of Northern European descent?
Answer: Haemochromatosis
Usually the C282Y mutation in the HFE gene. Treatment: venesection.
Schistocytes (fragmented red cells) on a blood film suggest?
Answer: Microangiopathic haemolysis
Think TTP, HUS or DIC.
Haemophilia A is a deficiency of which clotting factor?
Answer: Factor VIII
Haemophilia B is factor IX.
What is the most common inherited bleeding disorder?
Answer: Von Willebrand disease
Factor V Leiden is the opposite: it makes blood clot more.
Factor V Leiden increases the risk of?
Answer: Venous blood clots
Factor V Leiden is the most common inherited clotting tendency in people of European descent, raising the risk of DVT and PE.
Auer rods on a blood film are seen in?
Answer: Acute myeloid leukaemia
Auer rods are needle-shaped clumps inside leukaemic blast cells and point to acute myeloid leukaemia.
‘Smudge cells’ on a blood film are typical of?
Answer: Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia
Fragile lymphocytes squashed when the slide is made.
Howell–Jolly bodies suggest the patient has?
Answer: No working spleen
The spleen normally removes these nuclear remnants.
Which test is used to monitor warfarin?
Answer: INR
The INR (international normalised ratio) shows how long blood takes to clot. Most people on warfarin aim for 2 to 3.
Small red cells, target cells and a normal ferritin suggest?
Answer: Thalassaemia trait
Don’t give iron to fix a thalassaemia trait.
#7 · Saturday 24 October 2026 Hard
Theme: Medical history
Who discovered penicillin in 1928?
Answer: Alexander Fleming
Australian Howard Florey later turned it into a usable drug, sharing the 1945 Nobel Prize.
Who developed the first smallpox vaccine?
Answer: Edward Jenner
In 1796, using cowpox. “Vaccine” comes from vacca, Latin for cow.
Who pushed for handwashing on maternity wards in 1840s Vienna?
Answer: Ignaz Semmelweis
Deaths from childbed fever fell sharply. He was largely ignored at the time.
John Snow’s 1854 Broad Street pump investigation was about?
Answer: Cholera
Removing the pump handle became a founding story of epidemiology.
Who discovered X-rays in 1895?
Answer: Wilhelm Röntgen
One of the first images was his wife’s hand, wedding ring and all.
Insulin was first isolated in 1921 in which country?
Answer: Canada
Banting and Best, working in Toronto.
Who pioneered the multichannel cochlear implant (the “bionic ear”)?
Answer: Graeme Clark
Developed in Melbourne. The first implant was in 1978.
Who developed spray-on skin for burns?
Answer: Fiona Wood
Used widely after the 2002 Bali bombings.
Who co-developed the technology behind the HPV vaccine?
Answer: Ian Frazer
With the late Jian Zhou, at the University of Queensland.
Who invented the stethoscope in 1816?
Answer: René Laennec
The first one was a rolled-up tube of paper.
#6 · Friday 23 October 2026 Hard
Theme: Neurology
Which cranial nerve is affected in Bell’s palsy?
Answer: Facial nerve (VII)
Bell’s palsy is a sudden weakness of the facial nerve (VII), so the whole of one side of the face droops, forehead included.
Parkinson’s disease involves loss of dopamine neurons in the?
Answer: Substantia nigra
Literally ‘black substance’.
The usual first-line drug for trigeminal neuralgia is?
Answer: Carbamazepine
Carbamazepine, an anticonvulsant, is the usual first choice for the stabbing face pain of trigeminal neuralgia.
Damage to Broca’s area causes which kind of aphasia?
Answer: Expressive (non-fluent) aphasia
Understanding is relatively spared; getting words out is the problem.
Swaying when standing with feet together and eyes closed is a positive?
Answer: Romberg’s test
Points to loss of position sense, not cerebellar disease.
An upgoing big toe when the sole is stroked indicates?
Answer: An upper motor neurone lesion
The Babinski sign. Normal in babies.
Which antibody is found in most people with myasthenia gravis?
Answer: Acetylcholine receptor antibody
A minority have anti-MuSK antibodies instead.
A sudden ‘thunderclap’ headache is a red flag for?
Answer: Subarachnoid haemorrhage
Worst headache of life, peaking within a minute.
Guillain–Barré syndrome typically causes weakness that?
Answer: Ascends from the legs
Often after a gut or chest infection.
Lhermitte’s sign (an electric shock down the spine on bending the neck) is linked with?
Answer: Multiple sclerosis
Lhermitte’s sign comes from damaged nerve coverings in the neck part of the spinal cord, classically in MS.
#5 · Thursday 22 October 2026 Medium
Theme: Pharmacology
What is the antidote for paracetamol overdose?
Answer: Acetylcysteine
Most effective when given early. It replenishes glutathione.
Naloxone reverses which drugs?
Answer: Opioids
It can wear off before long-acting opioids do, so people need watching.
Warfarin is reversed with vitamin...?
Answer: K
Prothrombinex or fresh frozen plasma are used when reversal is urgent.
Which antibiotic class can cause tendon rupture?
Answer: Fluoroquinolones
The Achilles tendon is most at risk, especially with steroids or older age.
Grapefruit juice raises levels of many drugs by blocking which enzyme?
Answer: CYP3A4
Simvastatin and some calcium channel blockers are classic examples.
ACE inhibitor cough is caused by build-up of?
Answer: Bradykinin
Switching to an ARB usually fixes it.
Which drug traces its origins to willow bark?
Answer: Aspirin
Salicylates from willow were used for pain and fever for thousands of years.
Digoxin comes from which plant?
Answer: Foxglove
William Withering described foxglove for “dropsy” in 1785.
Which antipsychotic needs regular blood tests for agranulocytosis?
Answer: Clozapine
Very effective for treatment-resistant schizophrenia, with strict monitoring.
Metformin’s rare but serious side effect is?
Answer: Lactic acidosis
Risk rises with kidney impairment, dehydration and contrast.
#4 · Wednesday 21 October 2026 Medium
Theme: Cardiology
Which ECG change is classic for hyperkalaemia?
Answer: Peaked T waves
Tall, tented T waves come first. Then the QRS widens. Then everyone moves faster.
The heart’s natural pacemaker is the?
Answer: Sinoatrial node
The SA node, high in the right atrium.
Which coronary artery is nicknamed the ‘widowmaker’?
Answer: Left anterior descending
A proximal LAD blockage takes out a lot of the left ventricle.
A continuous ‘machinery’ murmur suggests?
Answer: Patent ductus arteriosus
The fetal ductus that forgot to close.
Which valve is most often damaged by rheumatic heart disease?
Answer: Mitral valve
Still common in remote communities. Prevention starts with treating strep throat.
Which blood test is most specific for heart muscle damage?
Answer: Troponin
Troponin is released when heart muscle cells are damaged, and it’s the key blood test for diagnosing a heart attack.
Delta waves on an ECG are a feature of?
Answer: Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome
An extra pathway pre-excites the ventricles, slurring the QRS upstroke.
Widespread saddle-shaped ST elevation suggests?
Answer: Pericarditis
Often with PR depression and pain that eases sitting forward.
Takotsubo cardiomyopathy is also called?
Answer: Broken heart syndrome
Triggered by intense stress. The ventricle balloons like a Japanese octopus pot.
What is the most common sustained arrhythmia in adults?
Answer: Atrial fibrillation
AF affects about 1 in 3 people at some point in later life and raises stroke risk around five-fold.
#3 · Tuesday 20 October 2026 Easy
Theme: Anatomy
What is the smallest bone in the body?
Answer: Stapes
About 3 mm long, in the middle ear.
What is the longest bone in the body?
Answer: Femur
Roughly a quarter of your height.
How many bones are in the adult human body?
Answer: 206
Babies start with about 300. Many fuse as we grow.
Which nerve is the “funny bone”?
Answer: Ulnar nerve
It runs behind the medial epicondyle of the elbow with little padding.
Which cranial nerve wanders all the way to the abdomen?
Answer: Vagus nerve
Cranial nerve X. “Vagus” means wandering.
Which heart valve has only two cusps?
Answer: Mitral valve
Also called the bicuspid valve. Some people are born with a bicuspid aortic valve too.
What is the largest organ of the body?
Answer: Skin
The liver is the largest internal organ.
Which part of the brain coordinates balance and movement?
Answer: Cerebellum
Damage can cause an ataxic, wide-based gait.
The islets of Langerhans are found in the?
Answer: Pancreas
They make insulin, glucagon and somatostatin.
Which carpal bone is most commonly fractured?
Answer: Scaphoid
Tenderness in the anatomical snuffbox is the clue. X-rays can miss it early.
#2 · Monday 19 October 2026 Easy
Theme: Infectious diseases
Which organism causes Lyme disease?
Answer: Borrelia burgdorferi
A tick-borne spirochaete. The classic sign is erythema migrans, the expanding bullseye rash.
Koplik spots are a sign of which infection?
Answer: Measles
Tiny white spots on the inside of the cheek, often appearing a day or two before the measles rash.
Which bacterium causes stomach ulcers and earned two Perth researchers a Nobel Prize?
Answer: Helicobacter pylori
Barry Marshall and Robin Warren won the 2005 Nobel Prize. Marshall famously drank a culture to prove it.
“Rice-water” stools are classic for which infection?
Answer: Cholera
Vibrio cholerae toxin causes massive watery diarrhoea. Rehydration is the life-saving treatment.
Which is the most commonly notified mosquito-borne virus in Australia?
Answer: Ross River virus
Ross River virus causes fever, rash and joint pain that can linger for months.
“Slapped cheek” rash in a child is caused by?
Answer: Parvovirus B19
Also called fifth disease. Usually mild, but it matters in pregnancy and in people with haemolytic anaemias.
Q fever is caused by which organism?
Answer: Coxiella burnetii
First described in Queensland abattoir workers. The “Q” stands for query, not Queensland.
Australian bat lyssavirus is closely related to which virus?
Answer: Rabies virus
It causes a rabies-like illness. Only vaccinated, trained people should handle bats.
Melioidosis, found in tropical northern Australia, is caused by?
Answer: Burkholderia pseudomallei
Lives in soil and water. Cases rise after heavy wet-season rain.
Mycobacterium ulcerans causes which skin ulcer?
Answer: Buruli ulcer
Also known in Australia as the Bairnsdale or Daintree ulcer. Possums and mosquitoes are implicated in spread.
#1 · Sunday 18 October 2026 Genius
Theme: Eponyms
Pain in the right lower quadrant when the left lower quadrant is pressed is called?
Answer: Rovsing’s sign
A classic, if imperfect, sign of appendicitis.
Virchow’s node sits where?
Answer: Left supraclavicular fossa
An enlarged node here can signal abdominal cancer, especially gastric. The umbilicus is Sister Mary Joseph’s.
Erb’s palsy affects which nerve roots?
Answer: C5–C6
Gives the “waiter’s tip” posture. C8–T1 is Klumpke’s.
Kussmaul breathing is classically seen in?
Answer: Diabetic ketoacidosis
Deep, laboured breathing that blows off CO₂ to offset metabolic acidosis.
Low blood pressure, raised neck veins and muffled heart sounds make up which triad?
Answer: Beck’s triad
Points to cardiac tamponade.
Cushing’s triad of raised intracranial pressure is hypertension, bradycardia and?
Answer: Irregular breathing
A late and ominous sign.
Fever, jaundice and right upper quadrant pain (Charcot’s triad) point to?
Answer: Ascending cholangitis
Add confusion and shock and it becomes Reynolds’ pentad.
Bruising behind the ear (Battle’s sign) suggests?
Answer: Basal skull fracture
Often appears a day or more after the injury.
Carpal spasm when a BP cuff is inflated (Trousseau’s sign) suggests?
Answer: Hypocalcaemia
Chvostek’s sign, a facial twitch when tapping the cheek, is its partner.
Conn’s syndrome is an excess of which hormone?
Answer: Aldosterone
Causes hypertension, often with low potassium.