Liver, Biliary, Pancreatic and Nutritional Medicine
Interpret liver injury and function, recognise decompensation, biliary sepsis, pancreatitis and nutrition risk.
How to prepare for MRCP(UK) Part 1
Use the official likely question distribution to plan breadth, then connect mechanisms, patterns and investigations to one most appropriate answer.
Core concepts
Concept 1
Liver enzymes reflect injury pattern while synthetic function and complications reflect severity.
Exam cue: Identify organ failure, infection or obstruction before chronic cause.
Concept 2
Nutrition support requires assessment of route, goals, aspiration risk and refeeding risk.
Exam cue: Use trends and linked tests.
Risk pitfalls and guardrails
Calling enzyme elevation liver failure.
Guardrail: Do not select an option merely because it is true; choose the one that best answers the exact stem and fits the full pattern.
Starting full nutrition in a high-risk patient without refeeding planning.
Guardrail: Do not select an option merely because it is true; choose the one that best answers the exact stem and fits the full pattern.
Memory anchors
What are major cirrhosis decompensations?
Ascites, encephalopathy, variceal bleeding, jaundice, infection and renal dysfunction.
What makes cholangitis urgent?
Biliary obstruction with infection requiring resuscitation, antibiotics and source control.
What frames pancreatitis?
Diagnosis, severity, fluids, analgesia, cause, complications and escalation.
What distinguishes hepatocellular and cholestatic patterns?
The relative predominance of aminotransferases versus alkaline phosphatase and bilirubin.
Who is at refeeding risk?
A patient with substantial malnutrition, prolonged poor intake or major recent weight loss.
Checkpoint rule
Do the check-up only after you can summarize each concept in one sentence and identify one dangerous pitfall from memory.
Knowledge Check (after reading)
Short check-up to confirm understanding of this module.
Check-up Questions
A 69-year-old man has fever, jaundice and right-upper-quadrant pain. Blood pressure is falling and he is confused. What is the diagnosis?
A 58-year-old woman has painless progressive jaundice, pale stools, dark urine and a palpable non-tender gallbladder. What diagnosis is most concerning?
Answer all questions to submit.
Next step personalized recommendations
Continue learning
Move forward only after this module is stable.
What is Pass Harbor?
Completely free exam prep for 247 UK exams.
- Practice questions
- Flashcards
- Study guides
- Mock exams
- No registration
- No paywall
- Start instantly
“No more expensive exam prep. Quality study tools should be accessible to everyone.”