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Retired NBME 20 Answers

nbme20/Block 2/Question#9 (reveal difficulty score)
An otherwise healthy 16-year-old girl comes ...
Cold, dry air ๐Ÿ” / ๐Ÿ“บ / ๐ŸŒณ / ๐Ÿ“–
tags: Pulm

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 +26  upvote downvote
submitted by โˆ—andrewk1(26)
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This girl has exercise induced asthma. It is not well understood why it happens but the triggers are recognized. Normally when breathing occurs air is taken in by the nose and the nasal passages and turbinates act to remove dust and humidify/warm the air. Logically this makes the air denser Pv=nRT. So when exercising, breathing through the nose is decreased and replaced by more vigorous mouth breathing. This means the air is not humidified and warmed up. The air is less dense and the asthma ensues. The question took this same principle except reversed it by asking what external condition could lead to the asthma and that would be cold dry air.

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eacv  oooh thank u !!! I choose wrong, cold air hehhe +6
eacv  moisture air instead! +



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