Cardiologia

Medical decisions are made on the basis of critical thinking and clinical judgments are based on the relevancy of the collected data. Medical decisions and clinical judgments are the results of the long thought process generated from formal learning, data from guidelines and practice standards, experience, an understanding of the incidence of disease in the population that the patient represents, and the likelihood of a disease being present in a specific patient. This book introduces and encourages the concept of evidence-based patient care. This work presents the ideology and methodology of critical thinking and also the available evidence, management and cost effectives across the field. Evidence-Based Cardiology is aimed at any clinician who encounters a cardiac patient from the Clerk to the Internist to the Practicing Physician, encouraging disease management decisions to be based on the highest level of evidence.

Despite recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment of symptomatic atherosclerosis, available traditional screening methods for early detection and treatment of asymptomatic coronary artery disease are grossly insufficient and fail to identify the majority of victims prior to the onset of a life-threatening event. In "Asymptomatic Atherosclerosis: Pathophysiology, Detection and Treatment", Dr. Morteza Naghavi and leading authorities from the Society for Heart Attack Prevention and Eradication (SHAPE) present a new paradigm for the screening and primary prevention of asymptomatic atherosclerosis. The text focuses on accurate, yet underutilized, measures of subclinical atherosclerosis, notably coronary artery calcium scanning and carotid intima-media thickness measurement. The authors introduce a comprehensive approach to identifying the vulnerable patients (asymptomatic individuals at risk of a near future adverse event). Additional chapters discuss future directions towards containing the epidemic of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease using innovative solutions such as preemptive interventional therapies (bioabsorbable stents) for stabilization of vulnerable atherosclerotic plaques, mass unconditional Polypill therapy for population-based risk reduction, and ultimately vaccination strategies to prevent the development of atherosclerosis. Up-to-date and authoritative, "Asymptomatic Atherosclerosis: Pathophysiology, Detection, and Treatment" is a must-have for any cardiologist or primary care physician who wishes to practice modern preventive cardiology and manage the increasing number of asymptomatic atherosclerotic patients. It outlines more accurate measures of risk (coronary artery calcium and carotid intima-media thickness) than traditional risk factors (total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol). It presents new multipronged strategies to aid in the early detection and treatment of high risk asymptomatic patients.

An Introduction to Cardiovascular Physiology provides the student with the key concepts of cardiovascular physiology, from the fundamentals of how the cardiovascular system works in both health and disease, through to a consideration of more complex physiological mechanisms. This brand new companion work Cardiovascular Physiology: Questions for Self-Assessment allows students to test themselves on all aspects of the topic with over 200 questions and answers, at a pace to suit their learning. Questions follow An Introduction to Cardiovascular Physiology's table of contents, and the author has set at least one question on each chapter's learning objective to help the student to assess their progress against the set objectives. The questions are designed to test basic understanding, fundamental principles and medical relevance, and they avoid excessive detail. Most are in a multiple choice, True/False format, with a sprinkling of other question styles including extended matching questions, where the reader chooses the best answer from a list, and testing little numerical problems. Also included with the answers are 'More information' boxes that include a brief explanation, and links to relevant information and figures from a range of chapters, thus encouraging integration of learning across the subject.