Intensive Care Medicine (ICM) Practice Exam

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Enhance your Intensive Care Medicine skills with our exam. Prepare with challenging questions, detailed explanations, and hints. Ace your ICM certification!

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What is the recommended initial test for suspected obstructive sleep apnea?

Chest X-ray
Blood gas analysis
Polysomnography
Oximetry

The correct answer is: Polysomnography

The recommended initial test for suspected obstructive sleep apnea is polysomnography. This comprehensive sleep study evaluates various physiological parameters while the patient sleeps, including brain activity, eye movement, muscle activity, heart rate, and breathing patterns. Polysomnography provides critical data that can confirm the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea by identifying the presence of apneas (cessation of breathing) and hypopneas (shallow breaths), as well as assessing the degree of oxygen desaturation and the overall impact on sleep quality. This test is essential because it not only confirms the diagnosis but also helps in determining the severity of the condition, guiding treatment decisions. Other diagnostic tests, although helpful in certain contexts, do not provide the extensive information regarding sleep architecture and respiratory events that polysomnography does. Therefore, its role is pivotal in both diagnosis and management of obstructive sleep apnea.