True or false? Often anticoagulants and fibrinolytic drugs are often combined with antiplatelet agents which led to the daily use protocol of a baby acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin), however, this widespread protocol is now being called into question in many cases due to long-term side effects of aspirin outweighing the preventive effects.

A common point of clinical pharmacologic confusion surrounds the fact that the voltage-gated L-type calcium channels found in cardiac muscle are considered modified versions (isoforms) of the dihydropyridine (DHP) receptors found in skeletal muscle. Alternatively, another way to state this is that the DHP receptors found in skeletal muscle are modified versions of the voltage-gated L-type calcium channels found in cardiac muscle. Either way, the reason this is confusing is because there is a class of drugs called DHP calcium channel blockers (antagonists/inhibitors) that actually only target the cardiac muscle isoform. With that, based on the name, what do you think is the primary condition these drugs are used to treat?

True or False? In comparing contractile force generated in cardiac muscle versus skeletal muscle, a key differences is that a single cardiac muscle fiber contraction is an all or none event at any given sarcomere length, whereas in a single skeletal muscle fiber it is proportional to the number of active crossbridges and affected by sarcomere length at the beginning of contraction (via the Frank-Starling law).

A relatively common but potentially dangerous condition that needs to be monitored in pregnant patients that is defined as a combination of gestational hypertension and renal dysfunction characterized by proteinuria is collectively called:

Dexamethasone is a very potent corticosteroid drug, specifically, it is a glucocorticoid analog, and you know now that this type of medication is of course classified as a steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (SAID). Among its many uses it has more recently been applied to treat inflammatory symptoms of severe COVID19. The goal here is to exogenously negative feedback inhibit the secretion of ACTH from the anterior pituitary gland. Two patients of yours, patient X and patient Z, with hypErsecretion of cortisol, are both administered IV dexamethasone. Patient X’s cortisol secretion level decreases to normal after the medication, but patient Z’s cortisol secretion remains increased. Which patient has primary hypErcortisolism (which is known as one of the subtypes of Cushing’s syndrome)?

Symptoms of primary hypOcortisolism include excess skin pigmentation via melanin patches resulting from excess MSH (produced from POMC in the anterior pituitary along with ACTH in response to CRH from the hypothalamus). This occurs via excess ACTH secretion due to a lack of negative feedback from cortisol. This clinical objective sign can also be found in patients with what condition?

For a patient with primary hypOcortisolism, which is one way the disease Addison’s presents, you would likely see (elevated OR depressed) levels of ACTH along with (hypEr OR hypO) pigmentation of the skin?  

Medications like semaglutide (Ozempic) are quite popular all over the world now as “the” next weight loss drugs because they not only help control blood glucose but also by directly increasing satiety (i.e., decreasing appetite). Based on this, we can conclude these drugs are receptor agonists for:

True or False? After spermatids become sperm, AKA spermatozoa, they are fully matured and prepared to fertilize an egg once they release into the lumen of the seminiferous tubules via spermiation.

The breakdown of which macronutrient (biomolecule) leads to the buildup of ammonium and urea, for which the kidneys must be healthy enough to excrete.