Specialty collection
Respiratory Medicine Resources
A focused collection of MedNext study and clinical-reference tools for Respiratory Medicine, connecting chapter learning, question practice and bedside reference in one place.
Explore MedNextRespiratory Medicine in the medical curriculum
Respiratory medicine integrates physiology, imaging and acute care more visibly than almost any other system. A student who can interpret an arterial blood gas, read a chest radiograph systematically and reason through breathlessness holds a large share of the internal-medicine marks.
The chest X-ray is central. Because respiratory emergencies present with hypoxia and distress, examiners test both rapid image interpretation and the structured management of asthma, COPD and pneumothorax.
High-yield respiratory topics to master
Arterial blood gas interpretation
A stepwise method for acid-base status: identify the primary disorder, assess compensation, calculate the anion gap and interpret oxygenation. This is a guaranteed source of marks.
Asthma and COPD
The stepwise chronic management, the acute exacerbation algorithms, and the features that distinguish the two obstructive diseases on history, spirometry and gas exchange.
Pneumonia and CURB-65
Community versus hospital-acquired pneumonia, severity scoring with CURB-65, empirical antibiotic choice and the atypical organisms and their clues.
Pulmonary embolism
The Wells score, the role of D-dimer versus CTPA, and the ECG and gas findings. Link the risk factors to the pretest probability.
Chest X-ray patterns
Systematic reading and the classic patterns: consolidation, effusion, pneumothorax, collapse, cardiomegaly and pulmonary oedema.
Tuberculosis and interstitial disease
TB diagnosis and treatment under national programmes, plus the imaging and clinical features of the common interstitial and occupational lung diseases.
What is in the Respiratory Medicine collection
Reference tools for this specialty
- 15 annotated chest X-ray cases with systematic reporting
- CURB-65, Wells PE, PSI and 4 more respiratory calculators
- Dyspnoea, cough, haemoptysis - 8 DDx presentations
- Asthma, COPD, pneumothorax - 10 emergency protocols
How MedNext supports Respiratory Medicine
Fifteen annotated chest X-ray cases teach systematic reporting, so you learn to describe an image the way an examiner wants to hear it.
Respiratory calculators including CURB-65 for pneumonia severity and the Wells score for pulmonary embolism sit alongside the conditions they inform.
Differential-diagnosis frameworks for dyspnoea, cough and haemoptysis, plus emergency protocols for asthma, COPD and pneumothorax, connect the reasoning to the acute steps.
This specialty layer sits on top of the wider MedNext platform: 410 clinician-written chapters across 19 subjects, a bank of over 50,000 MCQs with explanations deep-linked to the chapter that teaches them, and 1,562 visual cheat sheets for rapid pre-exam revision. Tool availability varies by MedNext plan.
How to study Respiratory Medicine
Make arterial blood gas interpretation automatic. Use the same four-step sequence every time until you can classify any gas in under a minute.
Read chest films systematically rather than by spot diagnosis. A reproducible ABCDE approach beats pattern-guessing and generalises to unfamiliar images.
Pair each obstructive and infective condition with its severity score and its acute algorithm, then rehearse them with MCQs and the pre-exam cheat sheet.
Respiratory Medicine: frequently asked questions
What is the fastest way to learn ABG interpretation?
Adopt a fixed sequence: pH first, then the respiratory and metabolic components, then compensation, then the anion gap, then oxygenation. Applied consistently to graded examples it becomes reflexive.
How important is the chest X-ray for exams?
Very. Systematic chest radiograph reading appears in written papers, image-based questions and clinical stations. MedNext provides annotated cases built around exactly these patterns.
Which respiratory scores must I know?
CURB-65 for pneumonia severity and the Wells score for pulmonary embolism are the highest-yield, and both are on the MedNext calculator set in clinical context.
Provenance and verification
Written and reviewed by the MedNext clinical content team against standard references (WHO, NICE, ICMR, API, BNF and the NMC competency framework). Last verified February 2026. Clinical reference tools are learning aids and revision resources, not a substitute for local protocols or bedside clinical judgement.
Study Respiratory Medicine with MedNext
Explore clinician-written learning resources, structured revision and practice across the MedNext platform.
See plans