Bøger i Developments in Cardiovascular Medicine serien

Since the introduction of myocardial perfusion imaging and radionuclide angiography in the mid-seventies, cardiovascular nuclear medicine has undergone an explosive growth. The use of nuclear cardiology techniques has become one of the cornerstones of the noninvasive assessment of coronary artery disease. In the past 15 years major steps have been made from visual analysis to quantitative analysis, from planar imaging to tomographic imaging, from detection of disease to prognosis, and from separate evaluations of perfusion, metabolism, and function to an integrated assessment of myocardial viability. In recent years many more advances have been made in cardiovascular nuclear imaging, such as the development of new imaging agents, reevaluation of existing procedures, and new clinical applications. This book describes the most recent developments in nuclear cardiology and also addresses new contrast agents in MRI. What's New in Cardiac Imaging will assist the clinical cardiologist, the cardiology fellow, the nuclear medicine physician, and the radiologist in understanding the most recent achievements in clinical cardiovascular nuclear imaging.

For over a quarter of a century, echocardiography has made an unparalleled contribution to clinical cardiology as a major tool for real-time imaging of cardiac dynamics. Echocardiography is widely used to assess cardiac function, and provides noninvasive information which is invaluable for the diagnosis of various disease states. In spite of its numerous advantages, in the clinical arena echocardiography has remained mostly qualitative and subjective. However, continued progress in our understanding of the interactions between ultrasound and tissue characteristics have brought about several new developments which allow quantitative analysis of ultrasound data. Among these new developments are endocardial boundary detection (frequently referred to as Acoustic Quantification), Color Kinesis and Doppler myocardial imaging. The purpose of this book is to provide the reader with the background necessary to understand and successfully utilize these methodologies. Chapters summarize in detail the studies that have validated these techniques thus far, and discuss their future applications.

In Heart Cell Communication in Health and Disease an extensive review of different aspects of heart cell communication is presented. The book starts with the fundamental concept that cardiac cells are communicated, and then proceeds to the role of gap junctions in heart development, the molecular biology of gap junctions, the biophysics of the intercellular channels, the control of junctional conductance and the influence of gap junctions on impulse propagation. This is the first time that a single volume has described cell communication in the normal heart and under different pathological conditions such as heart failure, coronary disease, myocardial ischemia and cardiac arrhythmias. In this way the process of cell communication is analyzed at different levels of complexity, providing the reader with a wide view of this field and its relevance to cardiology.

Despite recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of various cardiac illnesses, including ischemic, valvular and cardiomyopathic disease, the most cost-effective means of employing laboratory testing and treatment modalities remains an issue in most practice settings. With the advent of managed care and vigilant third-party payer evaluation of the use of diagnostic tests and hospital length of stay, the most effective medical and economic method of managing everyday cardiac illness is a question that arises daily in practice. To this end, we have selected well-known and widely published experts in cardiac diagnosis and therapy to develop practical and informative approaches outlining the most cost-effective methods of patient management. The topics include the entire range of cardiac diseases and emphasize the economic impact on decision-making. We develop guidelines and present general strategies for the practicing cardiologist and general internist. Additionally, the editors, who have 10 years of experience in this area, discuss the methods necessary to bring critical pathways and practice guidelines into clinical use. Both hospital and out-patient phases of illness are considered. Special concerns of hospital, private practice managed care and group practice settings are specifically addressed.

Autopsy derives from the greek word autopsia, which means act of seeing with one's own eyes. It remains the most objective and accurate method to understand human. disease. Unfortunately, the volume of autopsies in teaching hospitals has decreased dramatically over the past years. The crucial factors that account for this are the recent progress and development of new technologies, especially in diagnostic imaging, immunology, cell biology and genetics. Additionally, the perpetual fear of legal liability by physicians accounts for its further decline. Consequently, physicians and medical students are engaged in fewer autopsies and are not reaping the rich educational rewards that accompany these examinations. The purpose of the autopsy is not only to establish the cause of death, but also to determine the nature and course of the disease process. Our goal with this book is to emphasize the importance of the post-mortem exam and the correlation between pathologic material and clinical data by analyzing actual cases with problem-based methodology. The focus of this handbook is on cardiovascular disease, and when appropriate, other disease categories are included if they have an impact on cardiovascular function. The approach is more than the usual clinico-pathological correlation. Rather, we attempt to present the material from the perspective of the autopsy table. We use the clinical data as the initial framework and the autopsy findings to develop a true understanding of the disease and the associated pathophysiology of the condition.

* Richly illustrated with over 200 illustrations* Contains a Glossary of Terms* Very practical and user-friendly guide

Rhythm was the first expression of cardiac activity which fell under man's obser vation, and the heart beat has always represented the very essence of life itself as it accelerates or slows during moments of rest, effort, joy and pain until it comes to a halt at the moment of death.

Written by the leaders in the field, this volume provides a practical and comprehensive overview of the electrocardiogram (ECG). It evaluates the patient presenting with symptoms suggestive of acute myocardial ischemia. It is a useful reference for cardiac electrophysiologists, cardiologists, internists or emergency room physicians.

Implantable defibrillators as originally conceived by Michel Mirowski were limited to the detection and automatic termination of ventricular fibrillation. Ventricular tachycardia detection allowed the successful development of interventions for the termination of ventricular tachyarrhythmias before they degenerated into ventricular fibrillation.

Stress Echocardiography - Its Role in the Diagnosis and Evaluation of Coronary Artery Disease - Second Edition by Thomas Marwick is a concise, practical guide for anyone new to the field of stress echocardiography or an excellent summary of the existing evidence base for the experienced user.

Offers a portrait of how the heart works and in this picture the author shows a close-up of the structural, biochemical, and physiological links between excitation and contraction. This book describes a general scheme of calcium regulation and discusses the possible sources and sinks of calcium.

Within the last thirty years, by Sperelakis IS a potent reminder of the almost for the rift between clinical and investigative cardiology gotten fact that cardiology has twO sites, inextrica has widened, because of the overwhelming devel bly related.

Although clinicians have recognized the importance of inflammatory mediators in the pathogenesis of heart disease for well over 200 years, it has taken nearly as many years for clinicians and scientists to focus on the basic biological mechanisms by which inflammatory mediators contribute to the pathogenesis of cardiac disease states.

Though the possibility of using cultured endothelial cells to study endothelial cell function in vitro was recognized many years ago, the inability to culture unambiguously identifiable endothelial cells limited investigators in their studies of endothelial function.

This atlas presents over 160 illustrations, with 116 in color, and illustrates the capacity of multidetector CT for the analysis of the anatomy of the coronary arteries. The multidetector CT scanner speeds diagnosis and treatment of patients. Multidetector CT provides clear pictures and takes less time than other non-invasive techniques.

Mason Sones demonstrated that visualization of the coronary anatomy in living humans was not only feasible but sufficiently safe and reliable to be used as a clinical tool in the evaluation of patients with known or suspected ischemic heart disease, the thus far somewhat neglected area of coronary circulation became the focus of interest.

According to Schopenhauer problems are usually passing through three stages: - in the first stage they are ignored or just smiled at, - in the second stage they are fought, and in the third stage they are considered to be self-evident, just taken for granted.

Spencer, M.D. Normal anatomy, anatomical anomalies and collateral Pathways of the blood supply to the brain 43 Robert Ackerstaff, M.D. Normal blood flow in the arteries 57 Merrill P. Spencer, M.D. Normal physiology and pathophysiology of human cerebral blood fuw ~ P.C.M.

Apart from risk factors of relevance in primary prevention, secondary prevention is dependent on the extent of the disease itself; This concept truly is the nucleus of secondary prevention, sine only a life worth living generates the motivitation needed to take all the steps necessary in secondary pre vention.

Because the constant flow of information makes it nearly impossible to construct a timely book on advances in cardiology, the chapters in this volume describe the current concepts in cardiology and their underlying rationale, rather than attempting a comprehensive review of the most recent papers in each discipline.

Chapter 3 with the role of positron emission tomography; Chapter 6 with the role of SPECT fatty acid imaging; Chapter 7 with the role of SPECT FDG imaging; Chapter 8 with the role of cardiac catheterization angiography; Chapter 9 with the role of echocardiography; Chapter 10 with the role of magnetic resonance imaging;

Radiofrequency ablation as a challenging antiarrhythmic therapeutic strategy is thoroughly reviewed and the hottest topics are highlighted in Part Four.

Coronary flow reserve is a functional measure of stenosis severity re flecting the integrated effects of its geometry including percent stenosis, absolute lumen area, length and shape.

Today, coronary artery disease is one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity in the Western World. In the last decade many major diagnostic and therapeutic advances have been made, considerably furthering our potential in the management of coronary artery disease. At the same time, a new generation of cardiac tools has appeared. The field which has, perhaps, undergone the most important technological innovations is echocardiography. Nowadays, in fact, the world of ultrasounds ofters the cardiologist a wide range of technical applicatons: two-dimensional real-time imaging, intra-and extra-cardiac Doppler flow measurements, real-time imaging of cardiac struc­ ture and flow by 2D color Doppler, high resolution cardiac imaging by transesophageal echocardiography, tissue characterization by analysis of ultrasound wave characteristics, information on myocardial perfusion by con­ trast echocardiography, etc. Thanks to these technical improvements and to its consequent increased potentiality, echocardiography now plays an impor­ tant and irreplaceable role in the management of all cardiac diseases. In the field of coronary artery disease, echocardiography can reliably be used not only in the acute phases of the disease to derive useful functional and prog­ nostic information but also as a stress diagnostic procedure (thanks to new stress modalities and the continuing improvement of reviewing digital sys­ tems) for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease and for the evaluation of various therapeutic interventions. Furthermore, other promising applications of ultrasounds in this disease are currently being investigated: tissue charac­ coronary artery anatomy terization, myocardial contrast echocardiography, and flow evaluation by specially-designed ultrasound catheters.

Chapters 14, 15 and 16 address applications of Doppler echocardiography during the stresses of brief coronary occlusion, myocar dial infarction and post infarction recovery, while chapters 17 and 20 illustrate applications of stress Doppler techniques in valvular heart disease.