A recent study confirmed that the doctor’s office may be one of the worst places to determine if your blood pressure is under control. The automatic rise in tension many people experience when they are being scrutinized contributes to artificially high blood pressure readings. Although many times the only way improve one’s blood pressure is through treatment (such as medication, a low salt diet, and weight loss), other times …
A major innovation are the recent reports of success in replacing or repairing diseased or damaged aortic or mitral valves via catheter-based techniques instead of open surgery.
Mitral regurgitation is when the valve becomes unable to close tightly. Once the regurgitation becomes sufficiently severe to cause heart failure, the death rate reaches about 5% per year. Most such individuals are referred for cardiac surgery to either try to repair the valve, …
What is an EKG?
EKG stands for electrocardiogram. It should probably and sometimes is abreviated ECG, but EKG seems to have stuck as more popular.
Scientists have known for over 120 years that the heart gives off electrical currents when it beats, but it was the Dutch scientist Willem Einthoven in the early 20th century who discovered the nature of this phenomenon and who developed the electrocardiogram as a tool to …
I had a patient once who wanted an exercise stress test even though he had neither symptoms nor risk factors to suggest the presence of coronary artery disease (such as chest pain with exertion). I argued vociferously against it. However, extenuating circumstances (not relevant here) prompted our mutual decision to go ahead with it anyway. To our surprise and dismay, it came …
by Joe F. Lau, MD and Jeffrey W. Olin, MD
Physicians who perform percutaneous endovascular procedures encounter a multitude of vascular diseases that may masquerade as obstructive atherosclerotic arterial disease. While atherosclerosis is clearly the most common condition seen, complex inflammatory, genetic or structural processes may either not be amenable to an endovascular approach or actually be harmful and thus lead to outcomes that are not …
by Crystal Phend
Insufficient training among cardiologists in reading echocardiography results is wasting healthcare dollars and subjecting patients to unnecessary procedures, researchers said.
A review by sonographers of cardiologist-interpreted echocardiography findings at a Milwaukee medical center during a period of just over a year indicated major discrepancies in 29% of cases, leading to unnecessary further diagnostic testing or treatments for the wrong indication, according to a study presented here at the American …
Malpractice and heart catheterization have been in the news recently.
A spicy concoction for sure. An epidemiological study published in an online subsidiary of Circulation addresses the role of three major medical issues facing cardiologists today: malpractice, heart catheterization, and medical costs.
It is hard to get more controversial.
Heart catheterization, the invasive assessment of the coronary artery lumen, has always been a hot-potato topic. The “percent-normal” was the buzz word when I …
by John Gever
Emergency department patients with chest pain may safely be evaluated in the waiting room when necessary, researchers said.
Among 303 patients triaged to waiting-room evaluation in a prospective study, no acute coronary syndromes were missed and adverse event rates overall were lower than among 804 patients who were assessed in conventional monitored beds, reported Frank Scheuermeyer, MD, of St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, and colleagues online in …
When her gynecologist told her she had high blood pressure, Marie had a simple solution: switch doctors. After all, she had gone to him for a different problem, and this was the first time he had ever checked her blood pressure.
“He said, ‘Oh my God, you’re like a bomb waiting to explode.’ I said, ‘I didn’t come here for that, I came here for something else,’” she explained.
Two years later, …
Originally published in MedPage Today
by Peggy Peck, MedPage Today Executive Editor
A red dress jauntily displayed on cans of Diet Coke has become the latest symbol in the ongoing debate about pharmaceutical company support of research or CME.
But whose dress is it? The American Heart Association says it’s “not our red dress,” even as leading pharma critic Steven Nissen, MD, …
During residency, there was always a case of misdiagnosed chest pain to discuss in conference. Incorrectly sending a patient home and missing the diagnosis of cardiac chest pain was an infrequent, but repetitively observed, phenomenon.
So as to tread carefully with words, it is sufficient to say that even now, chest pain triage remains a vexing problem.
Chest pain diagnosis is like appendicitis; there are always small numbers of unusual cases in …
At the American Heart Association meeting in Orlando, the results of the ARBITER 6-HALTS study were released. No Vytorin was used in the study, but I am sure that all the headlines will mention Vytorin.
The actual study published ahead of press online in the New England Journal of Medicine. Essentially, they enrolled over 200 patients from Walter Reed and Washington Adventist who had known heart disease or were at …
Michael Jackson’s death continues to consume the news cycle.
There is currently no clear explanation. Some have speculated that it may be related to the narcotic pain drug, Demerol. According to this report from the UK’s The Sun, “An Emergency Room source at UCLA hospital said Jackson aides told medics he had collapsed after an injection of potent Demerol …
Michael Jackson is dead at age 50.
I’ve received several e-mails to comment on this story, but there’s really too few details to go on. I’m sure more will emerge in the near future.
According to news reports, emergency medical services were called to his home in Los Angeles, where he was found in presumed cardiac arrest. CPR …
Cosmo Magazine, that bastion of reliable medical advice, declares, “An orgasm almost killed her.”
Intrigued, gynecologist Amy Tuteur reads further, and finds its about case where a woman developed stroke-like symptoms after intercourse, and was diagnosed with an embolic stroke.
The patient was taking the birth control pill, which can raise the risk of blood clots. In this case, it was also combined with the presence of …
Jett Travolta tragically passed away yesterday, after being found unconscious in his hotel room by his caretaker. There is speculation that he had a seizure and hit his head on a bathtub.
Travolta apparently had a long history of medical problems, including Kawasaki disease, which is a vasculitis that primarily affects children. It is one of the most common causes of acquired heart disease in children, and …
Comedian Bernie Mac dies at age 50 from pneumonia. Sad news.
He had been recently hospitalized, and as recently as two days ago, it was reported he was stable and responding well to treatment. What happened?
There is very little medical information to go on. It was known that he had …
WSJ Health Blog: “Russert’s doctor Michael Newman said the tough-questioning but congenial host of NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ had been under treatment for asymptomatic coronary disease, but that it was under control with medication. He was carrying excess weight, Newman observed, but he got regular exercise and he performed well on an exercise stress test in April.”
GruntDoc: “I therefore propose a new sign in …
It was just reported that Tedy Bruschi is undergoing surgery for a hole in his heart:
New England Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi — who once played for the University of Arizona – is back in the hospital tonight, according to sources in Tucson and Boston.
The team isn’t confirming this news yet, but KOLD News 13 has learned Bruschi is undergoing surgery to repair a hole in his heart. …
Man sues over “botched” testicular surgery: Another frivolous lawsuit?
“A man is suing a hospital and one of its surgeons, claiming one of his testicles was wrongly removed during surgery.
Danny Curtis claims the surgeon at Kern Medical Center did not conduct a biopsy before arranging urgent surgery to remove a testicular tumor in July 2004, according to the lawsuit filed in Kern County Superior Court.”
I …
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