How to use this book This handbook may be used in several ways: for self-assessment to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses as a guide for further studies and to refresh and update your knowledge in respiratory medicine. Those who wish to experience how it feels to undergo the HERMES Examination may set themselves the challenge of solving 90 of the 111 multiple-choice questions (MCQs) collected here within 3 hours. The answers should be recorded on a separate sheet of paper without looking up the comments on the back of each question page. Another way of using the book is to solve the MCQs step by step, reading the comments at your convenience. The literature references listed with the comments on the reverse of each MCQ allow further reading to obtain more in-depth information. Still another approach is to use the index to locate and solve MCQs according to a particular syllabus topic of interest in order to test and consolidate knowledge in a specific area. The MCQs in this handbook are presented according to two different formats: in the single- choice MCQ, the reader is asked to select the only correct answer, or the most appropriate answer, from 5 options (alternatively, in negatively formulated questions, the only exception or incorrect statement or the least appropriate of 5 answers has to be selected). In the HERMES Examination, a correct answer to this type of MCQ is awarded with 1 point. If more than one answer is marked on the answer sheet, 0 points are given. In the second format of MCQ, 4 answers or statements are listed and the reader must decide whether each one is correct (true) or incorrect (false). In the HERMES Examination, 4 correct true/false decisions are awarded with 1 point, 3 correct true/false decisions are awarded with 0.5 points and fewer than 3 with 0 points. At the bottom of the comments and on each MCQ, the corresponding HERMES Syllabus topic(s) is/are listed. This allows the reader to identify related MCQs by checking the index. The Angoff score assigned to each MCQ by the handbook authors is also shown. This score reflects the estimated likelihood (in per cent) that a minimaly qualified examinee would answer any particular question correctly. It is a guide to the difficulty of an MCQ and helps to appraise the requirements for passing the HERMES Examination. vi