Thoracic Key

APPROACH TO THE PATIENT WITH A HEART MURMUR Patrick T. O’Gara Joseph Loscalzo INTRODUCTION The differential diagnosis of a heart murmur begins with a careful assessment of its major attributes…

DYSPNEA Richard M. Schwartzstein DYSPNEA The American Thoracic Society defines dyspnea as a “subjective experience of breathing discomfort that consists of qualitatively distinct sensations that vary in intensity. The experience…

THE PATHOGENESIS, PREVENTION, AND TREATMENT OF ATHEROSCLEROSIS Peter Libby PATHOGENESIS Atherosclerosis remains the major cause of death and premature disability in developed societies. Moreover, current predictions estimate that by the…

VASCULAR DISEASES OF THE EXTREMITIES Mark A. Creager Joseph Loscalzo ARTERIAL DISORDERS PERIPHERAL ARTERY DISEASE Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is defined as a clinical disorder in which there is a…

PERICARDIAL DISEASE Eugene Braunwald NORMAL FUNCTIONS OF THE PERICARDIUM The normal pericardium is a double-layered sac; the visceral pericardium is a serous membrane that is separated by a small quantity…

THE METABOLIC SYNDROME Robert H. Eckel The metabolic syndrome (syndrome X, insulin resistance syndrome) consists of a constellation of metabolic abnormalities that confer increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and…

CONGENITAL HEART DISEASE IN THE ADULT John S. Child Jamil Aboulhosn A little over a hundred years ago, Sir William Osler, in his classic textbook The Principles and Practice of…

CARDIOVASCULAR COLLAPSE, CARDIAC ARREST, AND SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH Robert J. Myerburg Agustin Castellanos OVERVIEW AND DEFINITIONS Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is defined as natural death due to cardiac causes in…

ST-SEGMENT ELEVATION MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION Elliott M. Antman Joseph Loscalzo Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the most common diagnoses in hospitalized patients in industrialized countries. In the United States,…

PERCUTANEOUS CORONARY INTERVENTIONS AND OTHER INTERVENTIONAL PROCEDURES David P. Faxon Deepak L. Bhatt Percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) was first introduced by Andreas Gruentzig in 1977 as an alternative to…