Underground Clinical Vignettes: Microbiology, Volume I: Classic Clinical Cases for USMLE Step 1 Review

by Vikas Bhushan, Vishal Pall, Tao Le

Blackwell’s Underground Clinical Microbiology, Volume I, third edition is your primary source for clinically relevant, case-based material essential for Step 1 review. Each Clinical Vignette presents approximately 100 cases with over 1000 classic buzzwords in Hx, PE, lab, imaging, pathology and treatment. The revised editions · High-yield updates to nearly every case
· Links to Basic Science and Clinical Science Color Atlas
· New Cases on commonly tested USMLE topics

Paperback

First published March 19, 1999

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book four times through on the treadmill. My goal was really to be able to associate a certain subset of clinical symptoms with a particular pathogen, so that, come exam time, I could just look at the symptoms and KNOW. For that, this book was moderately helpful. I think it really helped me to integrate a lot of concepts from lectures and other reading (for example, what Nikolsky's sign is, what it looks like, and what it means). I also appreciated that lab values were cited.

However, I didn't like that, during the discussion of the case, they would often tell you what the disease was. I would have preferred that they put that at the very end, so that I could read through the case and see if I could figure it out before reading it in the text.

I would not recommend trying to get much out of this book RIGHT before exams, because it's just not specific enough to what you may be tested on, although it is useful clinically. But I would recommend reading it at the gym or carrying it around to read while you're waiting for something.