Blood pressure and cholesterol problems affect millions. These are the bread, butter and sugary drinks of Internal Medicine and general Cardiology practice. It stands to reason then, that the treatment of these basic maladies would be well agreed upon. Guidelines and expert consensus statements would be clear and up-to-date. But this is far from reality. […]
Category: General Cardiology
I’m sad. Gone is the novelty of having magic in my IPhone. For over a year, I was special. As a beta-tester, I could show you your heart rhythm on my IPhone. Today, the AliveCor IPhone ECG passed muster with the FDA. It gained clearance to be sold to medical providers. I first reported this […]
I am pleased to publish a guest post from friend and colleague, Dr. William Dillon, an interventional cardiologist in Louisville Kentucky. (He can be followed on Twitter @wmdillon.) I offer his words in the hope that they will bolster awareness of heart disease and foster a spirit of cooperation among all Kentuckians. Bill and I […]
Big news was released today in the treatment of heart attack. Please allow me a (slightly) wordy intro. —— I’m not normally an alarmist. I often vouch for the heart’s durability. The exception to this rule is heart attack. Heart attacks are…well…very serious. In this case, alarm is clearly a good thing. So is teamwork. […]
Who knew that a having a nuclear stress test might put you at risk for suspicion of terrorism? No, I am not making this up. A famous medical blogger, known as the Skeptical Scalpel, cited this bizarre news report of a CT firefighter who was stopped by the state police. The unsuspecting public servant was […]
I’m sorry. The news was really bad today. I wished it were better. (Well, maybe I don’t.) The easy-answer people were denied again. Punched in the gut, were they. The notion that a pill can do what exercise does remains a fantasy. Another member of the group of drugs that boost HDL, called CETP inhibitors, […]
It’s entitled: More on ECG screening to prevent sudden death in the young: On risk, the Italian experience and notes from the real world. Here’s the lead in… Earlier this week, I wrote about one of my favorite topics in medicine: the ECG. This 12-pronged view of cardiac vectors catapulted my interest in the human […]
I recently had the pleasure of doing a podcast with Rob Orman, an ER doctor and fellow cyclocross racer from Oregon. As Dr. Orman says, we discuss the broad intersection of sports and Cardiology. Of course they intersect; there shall be no sport without a good heart. In the 35 minute conversation, we discussed the […]
‘Good,’ I say. Let’s spread the word that pills do not hold the answer to preventing heart disease. And while we are shouting, let’s add this one: There’s no such thing as a free lunch! Medicines come with more than just a dollar cost. When an obscure AF doctor blogs about the limitations of statins […]
Tonight, I am going to stick up for my interventional cardiology friends. These are the good folks who respond immediately (and I mean immediately) when you have a heart attack. They open clogged arteries. Like Jack Nicholson said, “you want these guys on the wall.†Why do I feel the need to take up for […]
An interesting debate has emerged in cardiology this week. The science is interesting, but equally intriguing–for a general audience–is the stage on which this debate plays out. That social media features prominently could only be called cool. First the debate: What role, if any, should genetic testing play in guiding modern heart care? The specifics […]