Cardiology
- How soon should patients with infective endocarditis be referred for valve surgery?
Refer sooner rather than later if the patient has heart failure, uncontrolled infection, or embolic risk.
- Infective endocarditis: Refer for expert team care as soon as possible
Infectious endocarditis needs multidisciplinary care. if surgery is indicated, it is best done sooner.
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: A complex disease
Most people who carry its mutations are never affected, but, rarely, some patients die suddenly at a young age.
- Understanding the tests we order: Comments and an invitation
Some new laboratory tests go through a life cycle, first being used by subspecialists and then by physicians everywhere.
- Perioperative interruption of dual antiplatelet therapy (November 2017)
Readers comment on perioperative interruption of dual antiplatelet therapy (November 2017).
- Hidden lesion easily missed on chest radiography
Chest radiography showed an opacity behind the heart, and CT angiography revealed it to be an aortic aneurysm.
- Are serum troponin levels elevated in conditions other than acute coronary syndrome?
Yes. Troponin elevation is a nonspecific sign.
- A 71-year-old woman with shock and a high INR
She presents with an acute change in mental status, blood pressure 80/40 mm Hg, pulse 130, INR 6.13.
- Physical examination in dyspnea (December 2017)
Errors occurred in Shellenberger RA, Balakrishnan B, Avula S, Ebel A, Shaik S. Diagnostic value of the physical examination in patients with dyspnea. Cleve Clin J Med 2017; 84(12):943–950.