The proper collection and interpretation of hemodynamic waveforms are important components of cardiac catheterization, yet they are often overshadowed by the more glamorous aspects of cardiology, such as angiography and…
As many as 85% of infants born with congenital heart disease can be expected to survive into adulthood. In the United States, the total number of adults with congenital heart…
Mitral valve disorders are among the most common valvular diseases with an increasing prevalence in the aging population. It is estimated that over 10% of patients over 75 years old…
After Werner Forssmann boldly inserted a urological catheter into his own right atrium, the right heart became accessible to clinical investigation, allowing the study of right heart physiology in both…
DEFINITIONS Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is defined by the mean pulmonary artery pressure (mPAP) of >20 mm Hg at rest, which is an update from the previous 25 mm Hg or…
“No monitoring device can improve patient-centered outcomes unless it is coupled to a treatment that improves outcome. ” Michael Pinsky Introduction The Danish anesthetist Bjørn Ibsen first pioneered the intensive…
We take for granted the relative ease that we are now able to measure the rate at which the heart pumps blood, better known as the cardiac output. It is…
Systolic function and measurement of the ejection fraction are often the primary focus of assessments of the health status of the left ventricle (LV). However, the physiologic events occurring during…
1. Cardiac Output and Shunt Determination (see Chapter 3 ). A. Fick’s Principle. “The total uptake or release of a substance by an organ is the product of the blood…
Despite the exhortations of poets and philosophers, the heart is, after all, simply a pump. The ability to “look into any man’s heart” with the goal of understanding the function…
