Cardiology
- Cognitive bias and diagnostic error (November 2015)
Readers comment on cognitive bias and diagnostic error (November 2015).
- Anticoagulation in dental surgery: Is it rude to interrupt?
Anticoagulation should not be interrupted for dental surgery.
- Should I suspect obstructive sleep apnea if a patient has hard-to-control hypertension?
Yes. Obstructive sleep apnea is common and is associated with hypertension and resistant hypertension.
- Predicting is tough, especially about the future
All risk calculators—not just for anticoagulation—are based on the “average” patient. And no patient is average.
- This is not an acute coronary syndrome
Stress cardiomyopathy—broken heart syndrome—typically affects older women exposed to a stressful life event.
- How can I predict bleeding in my elderly patient taking anticoagulants?
We have tools, but their predictive value is modest. Clinical judgment is important.
- An 85-year-old woman with respiratory failure and positional hypoxemia
Her oxygen saturation was more than 93% when lying down but dropped to less than 85% when she was upright.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation in adults: A practical guide for internistsPrinciples, patient selection, monitoring, and complications of this form of life support.
- What is the best approach to a high systolic pulmonary artery pressure on echocardiography?
This is a common incidental finding. What to do depends on clinical presentation, comorbidities, and results of other tests.