The Rx Bricks Podcast
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Build your foundation of medical knowledge and close your learning gaps brick by brick. We’re turning our high-yield multimedia learning library, Rx Bricks, into an immersive audio experience—so you can turn downtime into high-yield learning time.
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Latest Episodes
It might not be the flashiest anatomical structure, but if you want to stand upright, and keep your retroperitoneal organs (like your kidneys) in place, the posterior abdominal wall is pretty important. Located at the back of the body, bounded by the lateral abdominal walls and the posterior parietal peritoneum, the posterior abdominal wall is…
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Mitral stenosis (MS) is narrowing of the mitral valve. In the normal cardiac cycle, the heart relaxes during diastole and allows blood to flow from the left atrium to the left ventricle through the open mitral valve. When the mitral valve is narrowed, blood flow becomes restricted (Figure 1). Excess volume and pressure build up…
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A macrovascular complication of diabetes, diabetic nephropathy is progressive, chronic kidney disease seen in patients with both type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus, usually after at least 10 years of hyperglycemia (high blood glucose levels). The three main lesions that are seen in the kidney in patients with diabetes are glomerular lesions, vascular lesions,…
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Differences in ion concentrations inside and outside a cell cause a difference in the charge of the intracellular and extracellular environments. This electrical polarization of a cell relative to its environment is referred to as cellular membrane potential. This potential serves as an energy source for a variety of cellular functions and as a way…
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You might have heard the term opiates. These are drugs like morphine, codeine, and thebaine that are found naturally in the opium poppy plant. Synthetic drugs like fentanyl and methadone that target the same receptors but are not found in the opium poppy are referred to as opioids. Opioids that are created by chemically modifying…
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Welcome to the fascinating world of cell wall synthesis inhibitors, where we will venture into the realm of one of the most clinically used antibiotics, the penicillins. They are broad-spectrum antibiotics, meaning they attack more than one species of bacteria. We’ll explore each drug, its mechanism of action, its side effects, and so on. Penicillin…
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In 1959, the first case of immunodeficiency virus to infect a human was documented in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Scientists would go on to theorize that the man contracted what became known as HIV-1 from a West African chimpanzee infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), probably from coming into contact with the chimp’s…
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On inspiration, a healthy set of lungs is pulled outward by the negative pressure created by the increase in chest volume. On expiration, the lungs recoil inward due to their elastic properties. Simply put, the lung is easily stretched outward but shrinks inward when it is no longer being pulled by external forces. Obstructive lung…
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Hypertension, or high blood pressure, affects about a third of adults, making it a very prevalent condition. Having high blood pressure is generally an asymptomatic silent condition, unless it’s very severe. Without symptoms, the condition is likely to go undetected and thus untreated. Coupling untreated hypertension with pregnancy can lead to disastrous outcomes for both…
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If you are just starting out with musculoskeletal anatomy, the terminology might make your head spin. What are all the directions, terms, and obscure muscles and structures? The goal of this discussion is to clue you into the anatomy vocabulary you need to survive the study of the many muscles and bones you will encounter…
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