2026 AMLS ACTUAL EXAMS SCRIPT QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔Stroke Key Findings - ✔✔Unilateral weakness
Speech disturbance
Lack of balance/vertigo
Altered mental status
✔✔Cerebral Venous Thrombosis - ✔✔Blood clot that forms in the brain.
Affect women more often than men.
Tends to occur in early adulthood or middle age
✔✔Carotid Artery Dissection - ✔✔Key cause of ischemic stroke
Begins with a tear in the innermost layer of the artery. Circulating blood enters the tear,
quickly dissecting (separating) the innermost and outer layer.
This mechanical process compresses the lumen (hollow interior) of the artery so that
blood can no longer circuaate through it, triggering an ischemic stroke.
✔✔Carotid Artery Dissection
Presentation - ✔✔Unilateral headache, neck or facial pain and may report a recent
traumatic injury.
May notice Horner syndrome on affected side.
Tran
Transient vision loss may occur
May report decreased sensation of taste
Hemiparesis
Massive nosebleed
Neck hematoma
Cervical spine trauma
Cervical bruit
Cranial nerve palsy
✔✔Carotid Artery Dissection
, Key Findings - ✔✔Unilateral pain in head or neck
Vision changes
Pupil constriction, especially unilaterally
✔✔Cauda Equina Syndrome - ✔✔Nerve roots exiting from the end of the spinal cord in
the lumbar region of the spine become compressed.
S/S
Lower-extremity pain
Weakness or paralysis
Bladder and bowel incontinence
Loss of sexual function
Condition is an emergent one and surgical intervention is necessary to prevent
permanent loss of function.
✔✔Cauda Equina Syndrome
Key Findings - ✔✔Low back pain, often with radiation down legs
Bowel or bladder incontinence or retention
Recent manipulation of the spine (such as during a lumbar puncture of surgery)
Trauma
✔✔Brain Tumor or Intracranial neoplasm - ✔✔Inappropriate proliferation of cells into a
mass that invades and compresses the surrounding healthy parenchymal tissue.
✔✔Tumor
Key Findings - ✔✔Facial weakness
Visual changes
Dizziness/vertigo
Nausea/vomitting
✔✔Meningitis - ✔✔Inflammation of the meninges. CSF will also show signs of infection
and inflammation.
✔✔Bacterial meningitis - ✔✔Occurs when bacteria migrate from the bloodstream to the
CSF.
✔✔Acute Bacterial Meningitis Presentation - ✔✔Headache
Nuchal rigidity
Fever and chills
Photophobia.
Infection can also cause
- Seizures
- Altered mental status
- Confusion
- Coma
- Death
AND ANSWERS SURE A+
✔✔Stroke Key Findings - ✔✔Unilateral weakness
Speech disturbance
Lack of balance/vertigo
Altered mental status
✔✔Cerebral Venous Thrombosis - ✔✔Blood clot that forms in the brain.
Affect women more often than men.
Tends to occur in early adulthood or middle age
✔✔Carotid Artery Dissection - ✔✔Key cause of ischemic stroke
Begins with a tear in the innermost layer of the artery. Circulating blood enters the tear,
quickly dissecting (separating) the innermost and outer layer.
This mechanical process compresses the lumen (hollow interior) of the artery so that
blood can no longer circuaate through it, triggering an ischemic stroke.
✔✔Carotid Artery Dissection
Presentation - ✔✔Unilateral headache, neck or facial pain and may report a recent
traumatic injury.
May notice Horner syndrome on affected side.
Tran
Transient vision loss may occur
May report decreased sensation of taste
Hemiparesis
Massive nosebleed
Neck hematoma
Cervical spine trauma
Cervical bruit
Cranial nerve palsy
✔✔Carotid Artery Dissection
, Key Findings - ✔✔Unilateral pain in head or neck
Vision changes
Pupil constriction, especially unilaterally
✔✔Cauda Equina Syndrome - ✔✔Nerve roots exiting from the end of the spinal cord in
the lumbar region of the spine become compressed.
S/S
Lower-extremity pain
Weakness or paralysis
Bladder and bowel incontinence
Loss of sexual function
Condition is an emergent one and surgical intervention is necessary to prevent
permanent loss of function.
✔✔Cauda Equina Syndrome
Key Findings - ✔✔Low back pain, often with radiation down legs
Bowel or bladder incontinence or retention
Recent manipulation of the spine (such as during a lumbar puncture of surgery)
Trauma
✔✔Brain Tumor or Intracranial neoplasm - ✔✔Inappropriate proliferation of cells into a
mass that invades and compresses the surrounding healthy parenchymal tissue.
✔✔Tumor
Key Findings - ✔✔Facial weakness
Visual changes
Dizziness/vertigo
Nausea/vomitting
✔✔Meningitis - ✔✔Inflammation of the meninges. CSF will also show signs of infection
and inflammation.
✔✔Bacterial meningitis - ✔✔Occurs when bacteria migrate from the bloodstream to the
CSF.
✔✔Acute Bacterial Meningitis Presentation - ✔✔Headache
Nuchal rigidity
Fever and chills
Photophobia.
Infection can also cause
- Seizures
- Altered mental status
- Confusion
- Coma
- Death
