Skip to main content

What is cardiology?

What is cardiology?


Cardiology is a medical specialty and a branch of internal medicine concerned with disorders of the heart. It deals with the diagnosis and treatment of such conditions as congenital heart defects, coronary artery disease, electrophysiology, heart failure and valvular heart disease. Subspecialties of the cardiology field include cardiac electrophysiology, echocardiography, interventional cardiology and nuclear.

what is cardiology

Specilized Qualification


All cardiologists study the disorders of the heart, but the study of adult and child heart disorders are through different training pathways. Therefore, an adult cardiologist (often simply called "cardiologist") is inadequately trained to take care of children, and pediatric cardiologists are not trained to take care of adult heart disease. The surgical aspects are not included in cardiology and are in the domain of cardiothoracic surgery. For example, coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG), cardiopulmonary bypass and valve replacement are surgical procedures performed by surgeons, not cardiologists. However the insertion of stents and pacemakers is performed by cardiologists.


Nature of the work

Cardiologists work with adult patients - pediatric cardiology is a separate specialty.

Cardiologists manage patients with conditions such as:

  • angina (chest pain caused by narrowing of the coronary arteries)
  • arrhythmias, eg atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat)
  • heart murmurs due to heart valve disease
  • cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle) with heart failure including pulmonary
  • oedema (accumulation of fluid)
  • coronary artery thrombosis or myocardial infarction (heart attack) often associated with high blood pressure (hypertension) and high cholesterol
  • diseases of the arteries (atherosclerosis, arteritis, atheroma)
  • hole in the heart and other forms of congenital heart disease within adult lifeincluding transition from paediatric care and shared care of pregnant women with heart disease


Common procedures and interventions


Cardiologists work with adult patients - paediatric cardiology is a separate specialty.

Cardiologists manage patients with conditions such as:


  • angina (chest pain caused by narrowing of the coronary arteries)
  • arrhythmias, eg atrial fibrillation (irregular heartbeat)
  • heart murmurs due to heart valve disease
  • cardiomyopathy (disease of the heart muscle) with heart failure including pulmonary
  • oedema (accumulation of fluid)
  • coronary artery thrombosis or myocardial infarction (heart attack) often associated with high blood pressure (hypertension) and high cholesterol
  • diseases of the arteries (atherosclerosis, arteritis, atheroma)
  • hole in the heart and other forms of congenital heart disease within adult life including transition from paediatric care and shared care of pregnant women with heart disease
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A-FIB VERSUS JUNCTIONAL RHYTHMS

. ATRIAL FIBRILLATION: On your rhythm strip, the two most important characteristics are: . 1) A rhythm that’s IRREGULARLY irregular (meaning there’s no way to predict the next beat) 2) No discernible P waves . In fact, if you notice an irregularly irregular rhythm and you’re having to convince yourself that you see P waves... it’s probably A-fib (multifocal atrial arrhythmias like WAP/MAT could fit the differential) . *In my opinion: Don’t get caught up in using fibrillation waves as an absolute criteria. Very fine A-fib can sometimes produce a near isoelectric line between beats. . JUNCTIONAL RHYTHMS: The pacemaker cells surrounding the AV junction are capable of initiating regular impulses but at a slightly slower natural rate than their sinus and atrial superiors. The heart is built this way so that when the pacemaker cells with the fastest intrinsic rates are in action, those below are suppressed and function primarily to pass along the impulse from above. . For these reasons, we s
1 comment
Read more

The Pathway of Blood

Here’s a great illustration on the pathway of blood flow through the heart. It may seem easy...but you should know this cold as well as the cardiac anatomy, both of which will make procedures and understanding hemodynamics easier. . . . đŸ’™VENOUS BLOOD- Blood flows into the heart (into the right atrium) through two major veins (the superior and inferior vena cava) as well as from the coronary sinus (cardiac venous blood from the coronaries) and then out through the first AV valve (tricuspid valve) into the right ventricle. From there blood flows into the right ventricular outflow tract, across the first semilunar valve (pulmonic valve) and into the main and then left and right pulmonary arteries. Blood then enters the lungs to become oxygenated. . . . ❤️ARTERIAL BLOOD- now that blood is oxygenated flow goes from the lungs into the left atrium through 4 veins (usually) called the pulmonary veins. From the left atrium blood flows across the other AV valve (mitral valve) and into the left
Post a Comment
Read more

What is The Cardiac Cycle ?

The cardiac cycle refers to the sequence of events that occur and repeat with each heartbeat. It can be divided into two main stages: Systole and diastole, each of which is divided into several small steps When systole and diastole are not specified otherwise refers to ventricular contraction and relaxation Respectively, Reminder Blood flows from low to low pressure Compression increases the pressure in a Chamber, while relaxation reduces the pressure. When the AVT valves open the anterior pressures are higher than the ventricular pressures and Off when the pressure gradient is reversed. Similarly, Semiluna valves open when ventricular pressure exceeds submerged /, pulmonary pressure And stop. If the opposite is true, The cycle was started by firing shots at the SA node, which encouraged the atria to lower . Learn here Atrial Fibrillation Treatment It is represented by p-waves in the ECG Shortly after the onset of the P-wave atrial contraction begins and increases the
1 comment
Read more