Internal medicine board exam: the most frequently examined topics

← Back to internal medicine knowledge

Rank	Topic	Reports
1	Anemia (classification and work-up)	33
2	Resuscitation (BLS/ALS)	29
3	Acute coronary syndrome (heart attack, STEMI/NSTEMI)	26
4	Heart failure	22
5	Community-acquired pneumonia	21
5	Anticoagulation	21
7	Dyspnea (differential diagnosis)	19
8	Blood gas analysis	18
8	Type 2 diabetes mellitus	18
8	Atrial fibrillation	18
11	Pulmonary embolism	17
12	Arterial hypertension (high blood pressure)	15
12	Tuberculosis	15
14	Hemolytic anemias	14
14	Jaundice (differential diagnosis)	14
14	Vaccination and prevention	14
17	Acute myeloid leukemia (AML)	13
17	Iron deficiency anemia	13
17	Liver cirrhosis	13
20	Non-Hodgkin lymphomas	12
20	Pneumothorax	12
20	Rheumatoid arthritis	12
20	Sarcoidosis	12
24	Ulcerative colitis	11
24	Lung cancer (bronchial carcinoma)	11
24	Cancer therapy	11
27	Atrioventricular block	10
27	Hypercalcemia	10
27	Primary aldosteronism (Conn's syndrome)	10
27	Sepsis and septic shock	10
27	Vitamin B12 deficiency and pernicious anemia	10
32	Acute kidney injury	9
32	COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)	9
32	Hyponatremia	9
32	Metabolic acidosis	9
32	Multiple myeloma	9
32	Secondary hypertension	9
32	Chest pain (differential diagnosis)	9
39	Gastritis (type A, B and C)	8
39	Peptic ulcer disease	8
39	HIV infection and AIDS	8
39	Hypercholesterolemia and familial hypercholesterolemia	8
39	Hyperthyroidism	8
39	Infective endocarditis	8
39	Long QT syndrome and torsades de pointes	8
39	Myocarditis	8
39	Nephrotic syndrome	8
39	Primary biliary cholangitis (PBC)	8
39	Bundle branch block (left and right)	8
39	Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)	8
39	Transfusion medicine	8
39	Ventricular tachycardia	8
53	Autoimmune hepatitis	7
53	Dilated cardiomyopathy	7
53	Crohn's disease	7
53	Esophageal varices and portal hypertension	7
53	Pleural effusion	7
53	Celiac disease	7
59	Chronic kidney disease	6
59	Delirium	6
59	Granulomatosis with polyangiitis (GPA)	6
59	Hypertensive emergency and hypertensive crisis	6
59	Ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death	6
59	Graves' disease	6
59	Paraneoplastic syndromes	6
59	Primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC)	6
59	Syncope	6
59	Atrial flutter	6
69	Obesity	5
69	Asthma	5
69	Autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA)	5
69	Ventilation and NIV	5
69	Chronic coronary syndrome (stable coronary artery disease)	5
69	Type 1 diabetes mellitus	5
69	Eosinophilic esophagitis	5
69	Febrile neutropenia	5
69	Hashimoto's thyroiditis	5
69	Hyperkalemia	5
69	Immune thrombocytopenia (ITP)	5
69	Metabolic alkalosis	5
69	Upper gastrointestinal bleeding	5
69	Esophageal cancer	5
69	Pericardial effusion and cardiac tamponade	5
69	Pheochromocytoma	5
69	Polymyalgia rheumatica	5
69	Primary hyperparathyroidism	5
69	Renal anemia	5
69	SIADH (syndrome of inappropriate ADH secretion)	5
69	Deep vein thrombosis	5
90	Aplastic anemia	4
90	Ascites	4
90	Abdominal aortic aneurysm	4
90	Cushing's syndrome	4
90	Diabetic ketoacidosis	4
90	Diverticular disease and diverticulitis	4
90	Dysphagia (differential diagnosis)	4
90	Dehydration	4
90	Hemochromatosis	4
90	Hepatitis B	4
90	Hypokalemia	4
90	Influenza (flu)	4
90	Mechanical complications of myocardial infarction	4
90	Metabolic syndrome	4
90	Wilson's disease	4
90	Adrenal insufficiency (Addison's disease)	4
90	Nephritic syndrome and glomerulonephritis	4
90	Neuroendocrine tumors and carcinoid syndrome	4
90	Shock (types of shock)	4
90	Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)	4
90	Lower gastrointestinal bleeding	4
111	Achalasia	3
111	Acute interstitial nephritis	3
111	Acute mesenteric ischemia	3
111	Acute pancreatitis	3
111	Antiphospholipid syndrome	3
111	Aortic dissection	3
111	Acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)	3
111	AV nodal re-entrant tachycardia (AVNRT)	3
111	COVID-19	3
111	ECG interpretation (basics)	3
111	Gout	3
111	Goodpasture syndrome (anti-GBM disease)	3
111	Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS)	3
111	Inherited thrombophilia (factor V Leiden)	3
111	Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy	3
111	Colorectal adenomas (polyps)	3
111	Legionnaires' disease	3
111	Membranous nephropathy	3
111	Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS)	3
111	Adrenal incidentaloma	3
111	Renal artery stenosis	3
111	Osteoporosis	3
111	Pancreatic cancer	3
111	Peripheral artery disease (PAD)	3
111	Pleural empyema	3
111	Reactive arthritis	3
111	Refeeding syndrome	3
111	Spondylodiscitis	3
111	Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia	3
111	Steatotic liver disease (fatty liver, MASLD)	3
111	Goiter and thyroid nodules	3
142	Acute pericarditis	2
142	Acute liver failure	2
142	Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency	2
142	Bacterial meningitis	2
142	Barrett's esophagus	2
142	Boerhaave and Mallory-Weiss syndrome	2
142	Brugada syndrome	2
142	Clostridioides difficile infection	2
142	Diabetic kidney disease	2
142	Gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD)	2
142	Urinary tract infection and cystitis	2
142	Helicobacter pylori infection	2
142	Hepatitis C	2
142	Hepatitis D and hepatitis E	2
142	Hereditary spherocytosis	2
142	Herpes zoster (shingles)	2
142	Hiatus hernia	2
142	Hodgkin lymphoma	2
142	Hypoglycemia	2
142	Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and interstitial lung disease	2
142	Bowel obstruction (ileus)	2
142	Ischemic colitis	2
142	Colorectal cancer	2
142	Gastric cancer	2
142	Malaria	2
142	Mitral regurgitation	2
142	Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS)	2
142	Behçet's disease	2
142	Pulmonary hypertension	2
142	Raynaud's phenomenon	2
142	Giant cell arteritis (temporal arteritis)	2
142	Septic arthritis	2
142	Sickle cell disease	2
142	Sick sinus syndrome	2
142	Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP)	2
142	Takotsubo cardiomyopathy	2
142	Thalassemia	2
142	Tumor lysis syndrome	2
142	Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome	2
181	Acromegaly	1
181	Acute limb ischemia	1
181	Acute pyelonephritis	1
181	Alcoholic hepatitis	1
181	Alpha-gal syndrome	1
181	Anaphylaxis	1
181	Angiedema (bradykinin- and histamine-mediated)	1
181	Aortic regurgitation	1
181	Aortic valve stenosis	1
181	Asbestosis and pleural mesothelioma	1
181	Autoimmune pancreatitis	1
181	Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD)	1
181	Benign liver tumors (hemangioma, FNH, adenoma)	1
181	Budd-Chiari syndrome	1
181	Cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer)	1
181	Chronic venous insufficiency	1
181	Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)	1
181	Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)	1
181	Dengue fever	1
181	Diabetic polyneuropathy	1
181	Diabetic foot syndrome	1
181	Disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC)	1
181	Dressler syndrome (post-myocardial infarction syndrome)	1
181	Hypersensitivity pneumonitis	1
181	Folate deficiency	1
181	Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (favism)	1
181	Hemophilia	1
181	Hantavirus infection (nephropathia epidemica)	1
181	Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT)	1
181	Hepatic encephalopathy	1
181	Hepatorenal syndrome	1
181	Hypocalcemia	1
181	Hypothyroidism	1
181	IgA nephropathy	1
181	Infectious gastroenteritis and travelers' diarrhea	1
181	Infectious mononucleosis (glandular fever)	1
181	Insulinoma	1
181	Cardiogenic shock	1
181	Carotid artery stenosis	1
181	Lupus nephritis	1
181	Lyme disease (Lyme borreliosis)	1
181	MALT lymphoma	1
181	Drug-induced liver injury (DILI)	1
181	Microscopic colitis	1
181	Mixed connective tissue disease (Sharp syndrome)	1
181	Gilbert's syndrome	1
181	Food allergy	1
181	Kidney stones (nephrolithiasis)	1
181	Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP/VAP)	1
181	Obstructive sleep apnea	1
181	Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH)	1
181	Primary myelofibrosis	1
181	Psoriatic arthritis	1
181	Rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis (RPGN)	1
181	Thyroid cancer	1
181	Radiation protection	1
181	Subacute thyroiditis (de Quervain)	1
181	Toxidromes (recognizing poisoning)	1
181	Uveitis in rheumatic diseases	1
181	Cytomegalovirus infection (CMV)	1

Source: analysis of 105 internal medicine board exam reports (as of 10/2026). Each report counts at most once per topic; the basis is the topics and case diagnoses named in the reports. Only aggregated numbers are published – no information on persons, places or individual exams.

Topics without their own page (e.g. treatment or cross-sectional topics) are listed without a link.

Practise the top topics with flashcards, exam questions and image tasks in the InnereFuchs app.

Discover InnereFuchs