502682 - INTERNAL MEDICINE A

courses

ID:

502682

Duration (hours):

24

CFU:

SSD:

MEDICINA INTERNA

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Primo Semestre (01/10/2025 - 16/01/2026)

Course Objectives

The aim of the Internal Medicine A course is to teach the diagnostic and therapeutic approach to the internal medicine patient, with particular reference to the aspects of differential diagnosis and their complexity.

Course Prerequisites

An adequate knowledge of human physiology and pathology is needed. In particular, the student must be aware of the physiology of organs and systems (cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, nervous, respiratory, endocrine/exocrine glands, urogenital, hematopoietic), the pathological bases of diseases (inflammation, healing mechanisms, carcinogenesis) and the main organ diseases (e.g., heart failure, COPD, anemia, colitis and gastritis, endocrine gland dysfunction, autoimmune diseases). Finally, the student must be able to take a complete medical history, including physiological, pathological and pharmacological history.

Teaching Methods

Student-teacher lessons with discussion of clinical cases supported by slides.
Main topics covered: gastroenterological diseases in the internal medicine, anemias and their etiology, chronic inflammatory intestinal diseases, diarrheal syndromes and constipation, malabsorption and malnutrition, abdominal pain and gastrointestinal bleeding, weight loss. The course will also be integrated with the discussion of clinical cases in the internal medicine.

Assessment Methods

Oral exam with open questions in order to assess the skills of diagnostic and therapeutic approach to the internal medicine patient, with particular reference to the aspects of differential diagnosis. The exam questions will not concern individual diseases, dealt with in previous courses and exams, and will not be limited to just the topics dealt with in the student-teacher lessons. Examples of exam questions: approach to the patient with anemia, approach to the patient with dyspnea, approach to the patient with shock, approach to the patient with diarrhea, approach to the patient in a coma.

Internal Medicine A exam will be carried out together with Internal Medicine B and Internal Medicine C; it will be conducted by a single professor with questions on the contents of the three courses. The exam grade will contribute to the calculation of the global grade of the Integrated Course of Internal Medicine (weighted average).

Texts

Harrison: Principles of Internal Medicine. Published by Mc-Graw Hill Companies.
Rugarli Claudio: Systematic Internal Medicine. VII Edition. Published by Edra Masson.

For each specific clinical situation involving internal medicine and discussed during the lessons, students will be provided with the means needed to correctly prescribe the most common laboratory and instrumental tests necessary to confirm the diagnostic suspicion made on the basis of case history and physical examination obtained at the patient’s bedside. The student will also be provided with the means to decide on the most appropriate treatment, both pharmacological and surgical. The most frequent internal diseases will be taken into consideration.